SAO: A New Age
by yozila85
Summary: When the group has to find Excalibur, they run into problems along the way, but it's the problems afterwards that really hurt, they meet the warrior maiden Zekkon, and are forced to watch her slowly succumb to her illness, but some things can be fixed, for with enough time and patience, anything can be accomplished. A part of the ongoing SAO Fanfiction series by Yozila85
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: We do not own Sword Art Online**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark wolf knight 3**

 **Oblivion is owned by** **Urolutze**

 **Roxas is owned by** **The 2 tailed fox**

 **A/N: Be sure to read the other three arcs (SAO: The World of Swords, SAO: The Land of Fairies, and SAO: Gunland) as this story takes place after. After you do that, you may start reading. Enjoy the story.**

 **December 24th, 2025**

 **21st Floor Boss Room**

Artemis and the gang were fighting the 21st Floor Boss to get Kirito and Asuna's house back. Artemis led a group of himself and Wolf, Oblivion, Nero, Roxas, Arthegus, Kirito, Asuna, Klein, Lisbeth, Silica, Sinon, Leafa, and Agil. Artemis had the capabilities to kill the boss solo, but he decided to let everyone chip in.

Kirito let out a battle cry and charged the boss first, as he was anxious to get his and Asuna's house back, and the others charged the boss behind him. As Kirito ran towards the boss, Artemis jumped towards the blade coming at Kirito's direction and he blocked it and pushed the sword back allowing Kirito to go full offensive. Kirito cut the boss's chest 7 times before he fell back as the boss recovered from being knocked back. Roxas then ran towards the boss and as the boss swung at him, he rolled out of the way, allowing someone to get a few licks in. Wolf and Sinon charged the boss and jumped. As Wolf was in the air, he took a swing at the boss's arm and cut it, and as Sinon was airborne, she drew an arrow and shot it at the boss's leg, freezing it in place. It was then Nero charged at the other leg and knocked the boss onto the ground by smashing his warhammer on the back of it's foot and while Nero did this, Oblivion jumped at the boss's blade as the boss tried to swing it at Nero as he charged the boss. It was then while the boss was getting up from the ground and was about to die, Asuna jumped at the boss's chest and struck at it multiple times until it died.

"Good job guys, now we just have to make sure that Kirito and Asuna's house is still on the 22nd floor and our job here is done." Artemis said.

"Well why wouldn't it be here though? What would be the point in removing it?" Oblivion asked.

"Some people are dickheads, and they do dick things to piss people off." Artemis said.

The group went up to the 22nd floor and upon entering, they saw what was the most beautiful sunset ever witnessed, which Kirito and Asuna clearly remember. "Well, Merry Christmas you two. Now go find your house before some asshole buys it." Artemis said.

"Thanks everyone!" Asuna yelled as she flew above the ground with Kirito. They then flew away to find their house.

"They're like two papers stuck on hot glue, aren't they?" Oblivion said.

"Yeah, what'd I tell you?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah but look at you two." Wolf said, referring to Oblivion and Lisbeth. "You two are like two papers stu-"

"Yeah we know, you said that multiple times back in SAO." Lisbeth said.

"Well, we still have that Deathwish guild to wipe out into oblivion." Artemis said. Oblivion laughed a bit to this, then Artemis continued, "But for now, let's just fuck around in our headquarters, shall we?"

 **SWC Headquarters**

"Yeah I know that it's not as big as the one we had in SAO, but we'll upgrade eventually." Artemis said.

"Well, if we can at least have a bit of fun, I'm sure it won't be such a big deal, if Nero doesn't take up all the fucking room." Wolf said, jokingly.

"Oh I'll take your head off right now." Nero said, laughing a bit.

The group went down to a recreation room with a bar that Agil attended, and they had a shuffleboard, a couple of pool tables, and few dart boards. Artemis and Wolf were clearly fucking drunk and Leafa was laughing as they said weird things, and Wolf almost passed out and hit his head on the table, but Sinon kept him from hitting the table hard.

Leafa soon got drunk, and as Artemis saw this, he said, "Let's go upstairs and- fu-fucking do the 'thing'."

Leafa laughed and said, "A-all right then." Kirito heard this and he started protesting, but apparently he was also drunk and he almost fell over but Asuna kept him from hitting the ground.

 **2 hours later**

Artemis and Leafa did their thing and then they went downstairs to see a note on the door.

 _If you are reading this, we all logged off, since it's getting late. Tomorrow, since we already got the info we need to raid Deathwish's headquarters._

 _P.s, Leafa, don't do the thing again, Okay? Okay good, let's keep it that way._

 _-Kirito_

"Nah, Ima do the thing wh-whenever I want so f-fuck yo-u." Leafa said.

"Let's l-log off for tonight, all right?" Artemis said, opening his menu…

Suguha logged off and woke up to hear Kazuto making sounds downstairs in the kitchen. Suguha then walked down and said, "Y-you smashing stuff down here?"

"W-why must you always, d-do that thing with C-Caleb?" Kirito asked. They were still technically drunk as the Amusphere manipulates their brains.

"B-because, fr-ree will, and second, it-ts a game, s-so nothing bad's gonna h-happen." Suguha said. It was then Suguha got a text from Caleb saying the following…

 _Heiy Sgugdu, igm ouisife youtr housre, sos wei cnan waalk tooyu mye hous ansd doe thiungsd ds._

He followed up the message with:

 _Jsut jkidduing, but I wanmna taljk to uir brouther, we dsoln't do tyhat anyumnore._

Suguha looked slyly at her brother, and said, "He's here."

Just then, Caleb walked in, "S-aw this p-place (hic) was unlocked, so I hope you don't mind," He looked at Kazuto, who looked horrified.

"W-what do you want with my sister?" He asked, walking threateningly up to Caleb.

Caleb laughed, "That first text was a joke, and thank god I recover from in game drunkenness faster than you guys, but either way, I'm not here for her, I'm here for you."

Kazuto, who, ever since Caleb's confession was wary around him, and was very scared for his life when Caleb said this, he cowered in a corner and screamed, "Please don't kill me!"

Caleb laughed, "Now why would I do that? Especially to my best friend, I only do that to my enemies who hurt my friends, though Sugu, well she was telling me that she would deny what you said, just for fun, and honestly, I don't appreciate you controlling her love life, so for that," Caleb pulled out a multi ended whip, "you get 10 lashes."

Kazuto was even more terrified, and he began crying, but Caleb began laughing, "Oh come on man, it was a joke, dumbass, now get up and give a brotha a hug."

Kazuto looked up and saw that Caleb had given the whip to Suguha and saw that she was stifling a laugh, but she couldn't hold it, and began laughing loudly. He stood up on unsteady legs and cautiously wrapped his arms around Caleb.

"Dude, you gotta lighten up, I'm not any different than I was before, yes I may have done things, but hey, how many times have I protected you and every one of our friends, I haven't done anything to harm you outside of duels right?"

Kazuto nodded, becoming more comfortable around him by the second, "Yeah sorry, the fact you killed people, in cold blood mind you, even if it's with the right reasons, it still scares me."

Caleb laughed again, "Man, don't worry, I won't hurt any of my friends, though I might smack 'em upside the head when they're being stupid, but other than that I won't hurt them."

"Oh," Kazuto said, wondering how hard Caleb hits, he then got up, and asked, "Now what is it you wanted to talk about?"

"About if you truly love your cousin," He said nonchalantly.

"What?!" Kazuto was shocked, not only about the question but that Caleb knew about who Suguha actually was to him.

They heard a gasp behind them, and Caleb turned to see Sugu with tears welling up in her eyes, as she knew how Caleb knew, as well as that he doesn't bullshit.

"Y-you're my cousin?" She asked.

Caleb answered for Kazuto, "Yes, you guys are cousins, not brother and sister, I forgot that you didn't know, if you didn't enter SAO, you're mother would have told you, but that didn't happen, Kazuto knew the whole time, and that's why he grew distanced before SAO."

She looked at Kazuto, before rushing into Caleb's arms and said, "Is this true!? You knew this the whole time!?"

Kazuto hesitated for a moment and sighed before he said, "Y-yes I did, but I would have told you, but I never knew how to go about telling you, as it'd make you upset."

"So then why are you controlling me? Why can't I have free will in terms of my love life with Caleb? Huh!?" Suguha asked, angrily.

"I'm just… I'm worried about you. I don't want you to go through the stress of having a baby at 16, even if it happens in a game and not real life." Kazuto said, before realizing something, which Caleb was thinking the same thing.

"I think I know what you're thinking. If we had a child in a game, it would…" Caleb said, waiting for Kazuto to finish.

"Teach you two how to parent irl?" Kazuto said.

Suguha stopped crying and said, "I won't have a child until I'm old enough Kazuto, I promise. You don't have to worry about everyone and feel guilty if things don't go well for them."

Kazuto smiled and said, "Okay then, but you two be careful all right?"

Suguha nodded, and Caleb took her to bed and then he said goodbye to both Suguha and Kazuto before he left the house and started walking home.

 **December 28th**

 **Caleb's new house**

After Caleb got some food to keep him energized for the next week, he noticed he got a message from Suguha 2 minutes ago. He then checked the message, and it said that she wanted him to join her and Kazuto on a quest to get Kirito the Excalibur. He then texted her saying that'd he would be on in a moment once he got his food organized.

Once Caleb finished, he went into his room and layed down on his bed and he put his on Nervegear and turned it on. Once the Nervegear was done doing it's initial boot up, Caleb said, "Link Start" and soon, lights flashed towards him.

Artemis spawned in and once he logged on, he saw a message notification up, so he checked to see that Leafa sent him a message telling him to meet everyone at Lisbeth and Oblivion's shop. Artemis then flew there and upon entering, he saw that Kirito, Leafa, Sinon, Wolf, Asuna, Klein, Oblivion, and Silica were having a conversation.

"So, Nero and Roxas aren't here?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah, I talked to Nero about it and he said he had some shit to do at home." Oblivion said.

"And Roxas is apparently busy too." Wolf said.

Lisbeth then walked over with all their weapons and said, "Alright, we're ready to go!"

Everyone got up and picked out their weapons, and then Klein started boasting about how he didn't use magic, until Oblivion and Lisbeth pointed out he used magic on another quest, but he didn't know it. Artemis and Leafa had already met a monster earlier and befriended it, so Leafa named it Tonky. They then left to where they needed to go next…

 **15 minutes later**

"Ah do I ever love the cold air." Wolf said. Asuna then activated a frost-resist spell, relieving everyone of the cold air.

"Ah c'mon! Why'd you do that!?" Wolf complained.

"Because the some of the others were shivering." Asuna said.

"So Leafa, you got a ride?" Artemis asked.

"Yup, in fact it's on it's way." Leafa said. She then whistled loudly, and soon, they heard a loud sound in the distance, and Tonkey flew over to Leafa and the others. The group got on, except for Leafa and Klein, which Tonkey has his trunk on Klein's head, and Leafa explained how this was Tonkey telling him to get on his back. They then got on and soon, they were flying away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: We do not own Sword Art Online**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark Wolf Knight3**

 **Oblivion is owned by** **Urolutze**

 **Roxas is by** **the 2 tailed fox**

 **A/N: Hey, it's me, Yozila85, and I wish for you to know that my friend Urolutze is over in BC for the summer, and this will slow chapter production for the SAO series we are doing, but fear not, as these chapters will be sent out as quickly as possible, we wish for you to enjoy the story, as SAO: A New Age will include both the Calibur Arc and the Mother's Rosario Arc, we will try to expand on what happens in between arcs as well as a special surprise for the Yuuki lovers out there, as we love her too, but now I'm rambling and don't feel like editing the Author's Notes so all I'll say now is, please enjoy the chapter!**

They flew in silence, one of which Artemis did not like, but soon Artemis began talking, "Anyone know why the player's are siding with the frost giants, not the tentacle elephants? I mean they could just kill the monster's without the help of the frosty feet, but hey, I love Tonky just as much as the next guy, but still, we could just kill those who wish the blue man group to win this war," He said, causing Oblivion to chuckle a bit, and the other's to stare curiously at him.

Artemis clarified by saying, "Hey, I'm just saying we could prevent them from creating Ragnarok and destroying Alfheim, that's what'll happen if the frost giants win," when Artemis saw that everyone was just as confused as before, Artemis sighed heavily, "For fuck sakes, anyone read Norse mythology, or even know what it is?"

Leafa, who stared for a sec, before realizing what her boyfriend was talking about, said, "Oh yeah, that's right, if the frost giants win, they will attack Alfheim and destroy everything," she stood up, and looked over the edge of Tonky's back and saw player's attacking Tonky's friends.

"I wouldn't advise looking, as it's a very upsetting sight, now back to what I was going to say, there is a cold realm underneath Jotunheim that's called Niflheim and that is the true home of the frost giants and is also the homeland of primordial darkness, cold, mist, and ice. The first being, the giant Ymir, was born when ice from Niflheim and fire from Muspelheim met in the middle of Ginnungagap, the abyss that had formerly separated them. Muspelheim is the home of the fire giants, and is one of the nine worlds, like Niflheim. It is the polar opposite of Niflheim, it being the realm of heat and fire. Ragnarok is also known as the Twilight of the Gods, and involves every one of the gods killing each other and ending the world," Artemis sighed at the end of his lecture and looked to see everyone looking at him, surprised.

"How the fuck do you know all that?!" Wolf exclaimed.

"I've always been into Norse mythology, but I kinda surprised myself, I didn't know that I knew all that, I guess my research paid off," Artemis said nonchalantly.

A voice came from behind them, "It seems you have befriended my people."

Artemis turned and replied, "Oh hey, Uror, just giving my friends the necessary information to do your quest."

"And I thank you for that, it allows me to just tell you that I require you to go to Thrymheim and defeat the Ymir, king of the frost giants, before they destroy the rest of my friends," Uror said.

"Daddy, that's an NPC, but not any regular NPC, this NPC code is more like an AI than a regular NPC," Yui said, popping out of Kirito's pocket.

"Really?" Kirito said, looking at Uror.

"Of course, she is! Do you hear the way she speaks?" Artemis asked.

"Oh, uh, yeah," Kirito said, afraid of pissing Artemis off.

Uror handed Artemis a locket, that had a green medallion in the centre, and said, "Once the colour of the locket fades away completely, it means all my friends are dead, and that you've failed the quest."

"Already understood, now let's go and get that damned sword!" Artemis said, laughing.

Uror wished the group farewell and disappeared, "Now, as we are heading there, I will tell you right now, that the kill quest the players are doing is a fake, meant to give them Caliburn, a fake Excalibur, and Jotunheimr wasn't always ice, the World Tree extended into a pool of water and gave life to all that inhabited Jotunheim, until Ymir, king of the frost giants, threw the sword into the pool and severed the roots, and turned Jotunheimr into a winter wasteland."

"Ok, so what are we doing sitting around, let's go!" Wolf said impatiently.

"Calm down! We are here now," Oblivion said as they pulled up to a plateau on the upside down ice pyramid.

With all the information they needed, they wasted no time in entering the palace.

They came across a few giant's but Artemis and Wolf put them down faster that a house of cards in a hurricane, and walking away with a smile on their faces.

Artemis warned them that there were some minotaurs ahead, which Wolf laughed at, but he didn't know that the bosses were scaled to the highest level person in the group, which happened to be Artemis. He knew this of course, and he told them not to be hit, as it was his level, and when everyone looked at them with their identification skill, they saw he was right, and everyone looked worried, as none of them had faced a monster that high a level difference yet, except for Kirito and Asuna, for they had fought against the floor 75 boss back in SAO long before they were ready.

"Be careful not to get hit, Wolf, Oblivion and Leafa would be fine, but everyone else should be very careful," Artemis said, before activating his sneak skill and walking around behind the monster for a sneak attack bonus, he stood up and jabbed the black minotaur in the back for 3X the regular damage, it screamed and turned around, but Artemis had already gone back into hiding.

The other's were curious as to why Artemis had gone back into stealth, but nonetheless sat in wait, when Artemis reappeared, he was behind the golden minotaur, and he did much the same thing, but only with a 2X damage hit, which confused the others, because they knew Artemis would hit it with all he's got, and they knew that with his sneak skill, he could do much more damage with that, but once again Artemis was in hiding again, so it surprised them when he reappeared behind them.

"The golden one has a high defence against physical attacks, where the black one has a high defence against magic attacks, that is why my attack on the gold one did so little damage, and they will rotate out so the elemental skills will do the most damage to the golden shit pile, while the regular skills will do the most damage to the black cow, but do not use pure magic against the gold one or we will face a powerful duo, at the same time, and we don't want that, because I could only hold them off for a couple of minutes before they kill me and in turn kill you," Artemis said, and they nodded, getting ready to attack, to which Artemis said, "I'm gonna sneak attack gold, once you see that, charge him and let me tank the bastard, or at the very least, if things go wrong, don't let them hit you."

"Right," They said collectively, just below the detection level of sound. Artemis snuck behind the golden minotaur and readied an attack with his best swords, Hellfire and Shadow, his fire sword and his life drain sword. He knew his swords, due to the enchantments on them, would allow him the upper hand, for he did not need to prepare a special skill for high damage, whereas, people without enchanted weapons would be in a world of hurt, but even so, he readied a fire skill, just to enhance the damage even more, and he chose to do a skill connect as well, fire and demonic, would do nicely. He started his attack with Hellfire, and to add to the fire damage he used his fire skill on that sword, he then followed it up, knowing that he was still viable for another sneak attack bonus and still would be until he finished the attack, with an demonic attack from Shadow, dealing a ton of damage plus some DOTs (Damage Over Time effects), he once again followed up with another fire skill from Hellfire, and then another demonic skill from Shadow. He ended up striking 5 times and dealt ¾ of the minotaur's heath, but there was one thing he'd forgotten, you couldn't move for 4 seconds after finishing a skill connect. He was flung across the room, and slammed into the wall hard, dealing ⅘ his health in damage, which wasn't good as the minotaur charged him, but he was quick to recover and rolled out of the way of the attack, making the Minotaur run into the wall, dealing significant damage.

"Artemis!" Leafa cried, as she charged the beast with a wind attributed sword skill, "You bastard!" She screamed, and hit the monster as hard as she could, but even though she landed the blow, she was struck with a backhand, and was flung away. Wolf, infuriated by his friends being manhandled, swung his fiery khopesh into the back of the monster's leg, sending it to it's knees, but Kirito, just as mad, began his own skill connect, even though the monster was about to die from the DOTs began a fire and ice combo, striking it down in 4 hits, the final being a stab to the chest, blasting ice everywhere, and ending it's life.

The group was about to celebrate when Artemis reminded them about the other cow in the room, which they turned menacingly toward it, and charged it as a team, Oblivion landed the killing blow, with his lightning sword, using a lightning skill.

Artemis turned to Kirito, "You did good with your combo, however, as you are using a lightning sword and not an ice sword, you would have been better off using a lightning skill with it instead, would have done more damage," He said, smirking.

"Oh, shit, I forgot," Kirito laughed, and Artemis began laughing as well, understanding his plight.

"Welp, we gotta keep going, or we'll fail the mission." Artemis said, before heading down the stairs.

They went through a few more floors, killing the bosses more easily, due to Artemis being ready for the attacks, and making a plan for Wolf, who had the same stealth stat, to be there to block the attack coming Artemis's way when he finishes the skill connect.

They finished off the boss on the floor just before Ymir, and they were on their way down a passage when they saw a beautiful lady sitting in a cage of ice.

Klein's eyes lit up, and he went to save her, when Kirito and everyone else deduced that it was a trap, "We don't have time to deal with a trap right now, we will run out of time," Kirito said, before walking off.

Artemis laughed causing everyone to look at him, "All Klein see's is a lady in distress, and all I see is a man in a disguise, or more correctly, Thor, the God of Thunder, pretending to be Freyja, the receiver of the slain, the warrior goddess, and the one who taught Odin, the Allfather of the Gods, magic, and on top of that, she is the sole survivor of Ragnarok. No, it's no trap, we need her, for this will be one hell of a battle, and we must find Mjolnir, for when she touches it, she will revert back to Thor, and wreak face, literally," He said, once again surprising everyone of his knowledge of Norse mythology.

They nodded and but Klein was upset to hear that Freyja was a guy, but he still did the honours of freeing her. They walked down the hall and right when they reached the door, the frost resistance spell gave way, and Asuna was once again forced to cast the frost resistance spell again, but right after she does this, Freyja cast a max health up spell, which even increased Artemis's already extremely high health. Artemis thanked her before opening the door, and entering the room. He used a lightning spell on the ground, and he quickly found where Mjolnir was hiding, but as he touched it, and loud voice rumbled in the hallway towards the throne, "Who dare touch my prized possession!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: We do not own Sword Art Online**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark Wolf Knight3**

 **Oblivion is owned by** **Urolutze**

 **Roxas is by** **the 2 tailed fox**

"Who dare touch my prized possession!" A loud voice yelled, and Artemis scrambled to get to the hammer, but right when he was close, he heard a loud slam right behind him, it was a gigantic foot.

He slowly looked behind and upwards, to stare into a face that was riddled with rage, the giant's hand wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides, "Well shit, looks like Frosty balls has picked me up, what're ye gonna do then, squeeze me?"

"Little fairy, you come into my throne room, and dare attempt to steal my treasures, I'll do more than squeeze you, I'll crush you," He then proceeded to slam Artemis into the ground repeatedly, causing great pain, but somehow Artemis endured it, even though the pain was nowhere near as great as SAO, he hadn't felt pain like this since he was run over.

Soon Artemis broke, and he cried out in pure agony, a sound Wolf never wanted to hear again, as he was there the day of Artemis's death, and his anger was slowly building, with each slam, each cry of pain, only increasing his anger, but as he was about to charge, the giant Ymir, stopped his pummeling, and left him on the ground, but when Artemis recovered and began to stand, the giant stomped on him, causing Leafa to cry out, and the monster began repeatedly stomping him, until the giant stomped him and cried out in pain, recoiling and everyone saw Artemis, with Shadow piercing the giant's foot, healing him, preventing the death that was sure to come soon. His face was a mask of rage, none of which anyone in the group had seen before, it scared even Wolf, who was always stoic with his emotions, never being swayed by fear, though this time was different, as the anger played clearly across his face showed that he was gonna go all out, something he never did, even in SAO, or in any other situation, for every other time it was fun, now it wasn't Artemis meant business, and that scared everyone for none of them knew his full potential, but with the restrictions of the game, Artemis was forced to forgo skill connect, due to the lag it caused, though the lag only occurs when using elemental skills.

Artemis screamed, and before the foot could crush him again, he darted out from underneath the giant Ymir. He slid to a stop, instantly turning around and charged the monstrous figure, he sliced the foot a few times, doing more damage than normal due to Hellfire and Shadow, the damage boost from the elemental damage that was infused in the blades was especially useful to him, because ice is weak against fire, and Hellfire gave him the advantage for that, and being humanoid, Ymir was weak to his life drain, Shadow couldn't drain life from golems and other creatures made without flesh, fleshy beasts were susceptible to life drain because they were true living beings, not kept alive by enchantments.

Artemis stabbed the giant in the ankle with Shadow, causing his health to fill completely, and he proceeded to climb the beast, using his swords like ice picks. He ascended the beast quicker than any would imagine a man, even in a game, could do, and as he reached the face, he yanked both weapons out and spun like a tornado, denying the monster any chance of grabbing him, and he slowed down for a slight second to wind up an attack aiming directly for his eyes, he swung, slashing both of Ymir's eyes, before once again winding up an attack, but this attack was different, it was his Black Flame Flurry, and the group could see this, as well as see the giant was distracted, and they all attacked, Wolf using Blood Wrath, Oblivion using Blur of Aura, and Kirito using Starburst Stream. Leafa went for the hammer Mjolnir, and Freyja followed, though along the way she was casting spells, at Ymir, as they reached the Mjolnir, Freyja grabbed it, and instantly was swarmed by lightning.

By now the giant was hurting, it was screaming out in pain and rage, and then it felt lightning energy nearby and knew Mjolnir was taken, he furiously shook everyone off him, and spotted a peculiar sight, Thor was standing in front of him, and Freyja was nowhere to be seen, though the giant king didn't care too much about that, he cared to know why there was a god in his room.

Thor went on the attack, swinging Mjolnir with such strength, but sadly, he was blocked by Ymir, who summoned a frost axe right before Thor attacked. The two began swinging their weapon at each other, never landing a blow, except for punches, which still made the ground shake beneath their feet.

"Guys, it's time we helped Thor out and distract that bastard, what do ya say?" Artemis said, raring to go fuck frosty balls up a little more.

"Hell yes! He's fucking dead!" Wolf said and Oblivion nodded, feeling no obligation to speak as Wolf seemingly read his mind.

"For what he did to you, friend, there's no way I'm holding back now," Kirito said.

"I must help, I feel terrible for sitting back while you were being smashed to pieces," Leafa said with tears in her eyes.

"You did exactly as I would have wished, I didn't need you dying on me now, it would take too long to respawn, and get back here," Artemis said, "And I'd rather not have your death on my conscience."

"Thanks, that makes me feel better," She said, readying her katana.

"Can we stop yaking and start smashing!" Wolf said, agitated.

"Right," Artemis said, before charging the giant, before stopping and keeling over.

Everyone other than Asuna and Leafa continued the charge, knowing they could handle it, "What's wrong, you're not in pain, right?" Leafa asked, concerned.

"A little too much, when I was run over by that fucking truck in my last life, that's about the amount of pain I was in during the beating I took, and now it's coming back to me," Artemis groaned, "and because of it, my heart's racing a little too fast, and since I'm still using my Nervegear rather than an Amusphere, I may still have a heart attack due to my heart beating so fast, I mean I'm getting the warning due to the game, but I'm not gonna be kicked off due to the Nervegear not having that function."

"Oh shit, you gotta log off, before you hurt yourself," Asuna urged him, before tossing out a few heals to the rest of the group.

"Naw, I'm fine, I mean look at me, I look like I've been in a train wreck, and I feel like shit, but I won't pussy out because of the threat of a heart attack, but still, I need a breather." Artemis said, as the other's finally distracted Ymir into looking away from Thor, allowing the Thunder God to land a heavy hit on the giant king's head.

Ymir went down, and he then began covering himself in ice, saying that he'll be back, when Thor answered by slamming his hammer down once more, ending the frost giant's life.

"I thank you for allowing me to retrieve my treasure, now I must reward you for releasing me from my prison of ice," Thor then raised his hammer, and a beam flashed on Klein's hands, and it formed a hammer, he was given Mjolnir, a legendary weapon, though he had no hammer skill's thus it was useless to him.

In the end he gave it to Lisbeth under the promise she wouldn't turn it into materials, and she accepted the offering, and gave her most sincere promise, that she would keep it safe.

"Um… guys, the quest ain't over," Artemis said, "We still have to retrieve Excalibur."

"Oh, right," Kirito said, and they all began searching the room for an exit, one Yui quickly found, and they descended the stairs to Excalibur.

Artemis gesture to Kirito to take it, and Kirito grabbed hold of the handle of the sword, and he struggled to release it from it's place in the ice, but once he did, the whole place began to shake.

"Oh shit, forgot to tell you guys about this part," Artemis said, "The whole ice temple is melting rapidly, so hold on, and Kirito, I'll hold onto that, your strength isn't enough to let you jump with it, so I'll carry it across."

"Across to where?" Kirito asked, before a loud trumpet sounded below them, but right then, the supports holding the place they were standing afloat, shattered, and they began to fall, Kirito quickly handed Artemis the sword, and everyone began to jump on Tonky, who had began to fly alongside the falling platform.

When they were all safely on the tentacle elephant, Oblivion shook his head, "What a fucking ride that was."

"Couldn't agree more," Wolf said, but then they saw everything melting around them, and they stared at all the players who were doing the kill quest, the surprise plain of their faces.

The group looked at Artemis, who was clearly still in pain, lying down on Tonky's back, breathing heavily, "Never been good with heights," Artemis said, huffing.

The group laughed but then a light flashed behind them,it was Uror, but this time she had her two sisters with her, "We thank you for saving Jotunheim from the frost giants, I have brought my sisters who wish to thank you themselves."

"Hello my name is Veroandi, I thank you for saving my friends," The girl on Uror's right said, smiling.

"My name is Skuld, and I too thank you for saving my friends," the girl on Uror's left said.

"And our reward to you is the Holy Sword Excalibur, please keep it safe." Uror said before she and her sisters flew away.

As they were flying away, Klein got up and rushed to the edge of Tonky's back, "Skuld!" He called, and the girl turned and stared at him, "Can you give me your number or something to remember you!" To answer the girl waved at him, sparkles floating from her hand, and resting in Klein's, he held them to his heart as Skuld flew away.

"Sometimes, I really admire you Klein, your passion knows no bounds," Lisbeth said.

Artemis opened his menu and pulled out a home teleport, and teleported to his home in New Aincrad, or rather the new Headquarters for the SWC, the previous headquarters from his days in SAO. He then sent a message that he'll meet everyone at the Dicey Cafe later, and logged off.

He awoke if pure agony, it seemed that the pain he received in game affected him more than he thought it would. He got up, and pain spiked in his back, he groaned, and texted everyone he was on his way.

He hopped into his '64 Mustang Boss, and drove off. As he drove, he felt as if he was hit by a truck, again, and he kept shifting in his seat.

When he got to the Dicey Cafe, he got out of his car and walked in, everyone was there, eating a large meal.

"Hey guys," He said as he walked in, trying to hide the pain he was in, suffice to say, it didn't work.

"You look in bad shape, here take a seat," Andrew said, pulling up a spot to sit right next to Suguha.

"Are you okay, you look terrible, like you've been-, Oh shit! That beating you got in the game did this, didn't it?" Suguha asked worriedly.

"Well, turns out that pain in game turns into pain IRL if you're not careful, I feel like I've been hit by a truck, and believe me, I know how that feels," Caleb joked, before groaning again and shifting in his seat.

"Maybe you should go home if you're in this bad a shape," Owen said, looking at his friend.

"Naw, I'm good, it just fucking hurts, I shouldn't have let him man handle me like that, but what could I do, I was helpless, even when being stomped, I couldn't move, at least until I felt numb enough to stop feeling pain, for a moment anyways, now, I can't feel my arms or legs, but I do feel my back, and it fucking hurts," Caleb replied, smiling, and he grabbed himself a plate of chicken, and dug in.

"Well, at least you're hungry," Wolf laughed, before eating his own plate of steak.

"I've heard Excalibur called Caliburn before, in many books it is referred to as Caliburn," Asada said, surprising Suguha.

"You read mythology books too?" She asked curiously.

"Back in seventh grade, I used to live in the library," Asada responded, laughing, "I love the word calibur because it can be used to describe the length of a gun barrel or the quality of a person."

"So you're saying that to have Excalibur, you'd need to be an exceptional person?" Lisbeth asked.

"Yes, in terms of speaking," Asada said, smiling.

"So exceptional in fact, that he'd not think twice about paying for such a wonderful meal with all the money he earned in GGO, right?" Lisbeth said, looking at Kazuto.

Kazuto stood up, and stuttered before saying, "O-of course, I was gonna use that for a surprise, but sure, dinners on me."

Caleb leaned over and said, "I'll pay you back for my part."

"Really?!" Kazuto was shocked, as he thought Caleb would just accept his offer and continue enjoying himself.

"Of course, I'm rich, I come from a rich family who sends me like 1,000,000 yen per week, I'm perfectly able to pay for my part," Caleb said, smiling.

"Thanks man," Kazuto said, relieved.

Caleb looked off to the distance, these next few weeks will be uneventful, but soon, he knew, he will meet Zekkon, The Absolute Sword.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: We do not own Sword Art Online**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark Wolf Knight3**

 **Oblivion is owned by** **Urolutze**

 **Roxas is by** **the 2 tailed fox**

It was the 6th of January, and Artemis was sitting in Kirito and Asuna's home on floor 22 with most of his friends, there was Kirito and Asuna, of course, and Silica, Lisbeth, Sinon, Oblivion, Wolf, and Nero.

"Wake up, sleepy, you've got homework to finish," Asuna said, nudging Silica awake.

Artemis began laughing, alerting everyone, "What's your problem?" Oblivion asked.

"Oh, nothing, just remembering how you and Nero got your asses kicked, by Zekkon no less," Artemis replying.

"Like you can do better," Nero muttered.

"I can kick Kirito's ass, and yours, thank you very much, I'd actually prefer to see Asuna fight her," Artemis said, avoiding the forssen problem of making Asuna think Zekkon was a guy.

"Oh, you're just afraid to lose," Oblivion said, glaring at Artemis.

"Like hell I am, I will fight her, after Asuna," Artemis replied.

"Wait, what am I getting roped into?" Asuna asked, worried.

"Oh nothing, you just need to duel that little girl, Zekkon, she's supposed to be ALO's strongest player, like I was before, yet I haven't dueled her yet," Artemis said, pulling out his pipe, and began having himself a smoke.

Asuna's eyes widened, "Wait, little girl? Best player in ALO?" Asuna asked.

"Yes, actually Kirito attempted to beat her, got his ass whooped, though, he wasn't using dual wielding, so he wasn't at his best," Asuna's eyes widened at this and she opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted, "However, he began asking her something, the other's don't know what he asked, but I do," Artemis finished.

"Wait, you noticed it too, and you know what he asked, can you tell us?" Leafa asked.

Artemis laughed, "Wow, ok then, well, he asked if she was a full time player, she answered by a smirk and a super fast attack," He said, and then said, "You will find out what that means, Kirito will tell you where she is in the real world, later, he won't know right now, I know where she is, but that's up to her to tell you, not up to me," He leaned back with his pipe in his mouth and his hand behind his head, "And she has a reward for beating her, or to those she deems worthy, it's an 11 hit skill, the strongest one handed skill in ALO."

Asuna was confused for the most part, but when she heard the reward, she agreed to the fight, "Oh shit, look at the time, I've got to get off now," Asuna began to clean up the dishes.

"Oh, and Asuna?" Artemis asked.

"Yes?"

"Don't worry about your mother, if you want, we can take care of her?" Asuna was positively shocked that Artemis knew her current home situation, but at the same time shocked that he would suggest killing her, "And no, I won't kill her, just talk to her, because, I, well, in truth, when I got hit by that truck all those years ago, sending me to this world, it was a suicide attempt, due to home situations, but that's in the past, I'm here, in a better life, so… yeah, and that, my friends, is my ticket to a mental hospital, see ya," He swiped open his menu and logged out.

 **The Next Day**

Artemis sat and watched the matches before Asuna showed up, and he being there drew attention, people asking him to fight her, telling him that they want a real fight, but then he saw Asuna show up, and challenge Zekkon to a fight, Artemis told his supporters, "This is gonna be a good fight, if Zekkon doesn't choose the previous second in command of the KOTBO, then I'm gonna do it," He smiled.

The fight began with the two girls exchanging blows, neither giving ground. Asuna swung her sword in a horizontal arc, which was stopped by Zekkon, who in turn sliced at Asuna, too quick, as it scratched her right under her boob, angering her. She flipped away for a break, and soon jumped right back into the fray, this time landing a hit, cutting Yuuki's cheek. She took the hit, and in exchange, went for one of her own, and another and another, until Asuna was covered with cuts, but Yuuki didn't get out scot free either, she too were beat, and the two girls went at it again, but Asuna forced Yuuki to use her trump card, Mother's Rosario. She landed all 11 hits, but Asuna was still standing, however she wasn't standing straight.

Yuuki walked over to Asuna and cryptically said, "You're the one for sure," and grabbed Asuna's hand and dragged her away.

Artemis chuckled, he turned away and made his way to the bar The Sleeping Knights called home.

When he arrived, he saw Asuna surrounded by a group of kids, all of whom and terminal illnesses, though none of which had it as bad as Yuuki. He chuckled, and walked over, "Hello, fancy meeting you here Asuna," He said.

"Piss off, you jerk, how'd you know where we we gonna be?" Asuna asked.

Artemis laughed, "Ouch, that hurt," He joked, "You know how I knew, but I'm really here to talk to Yuuki," He said, startling Yuuki.

"M-me?!" She asked, as she knew exactly who he was, and knew he was a merciless fighter.

"Yes you, now c'mon," He said smiling.

The two walked into a remote corner of the bar, "Now, I'll let you know that I know a lot about you, the best swordswoman in ALO, I know that you are on the Medicuboid, that you have AIDS, but I'll have you know, I will not tell Asuna any of this information, however, I cannot say the same for my friend and her boyfriend," Artemis told her, which surprised her more than imaginable.

"H-how do you know?" she asked shakily.

"Hey, calm down, you wouldn't believe me if I told you," Artemis said, dodging the question, but she was persistent.

"Oh c'mon, I won't tell anybody, you know my secret, it's only fair I know yours," Yuuki pressed.

"Well, you may think of me as crazy because of this, but I'm not of this universe, still human, mind you, just died in my universe, and was transported here by God, who strangely looked like Morgan Freeman with a longer beard, I was killed by a large truck, running me over, suicide, that was my goal anyways, got what I wanted, but still, I came to this universe, me and Asuna and all of my friends are SAO survivors," Artemis was rambling, but stopped himself before he could confuse the poor girl.

"So what you're saying is, you committed suicide, and God sent you here, rather than heaven, why would he do that?" She asked confused.

"I asked him to send me here, you see, everyone gets a second chance, just not in their universe, though all my friends remember my death, because God needed a way for me to keep my memories from my last time around, so they killed off another version of me in the exact same way I died in my universe, however, I kept my memories of an Anime called Sword Art Online, yes this world is based on that Anime, I knew everything that was going to happen, from start to finish, and I knew about you, and I knew everything about you, all the other diseases you have, though those are treatable, I checked the internet for ways on getting rid of them, also, ever since I came to this world, my family has been funding a large group of scientists, and doctors on finding a cure for AIDS, it the experimental cure is out, and we already are testing it, and so far so good, we have cured people of every different blood type with the same cure, meaning it's safe, but we still have a few months to go, because we can't be sure if it's just dormant, but all we know at the moment is even dormant, it's not transferring to other people who have chosen to be subjects in our experiments, which is good," Artemis saw Yuuki tearing up at the thought of a cure.

"You think you can save me," She began to cry, which broke Artemis's heart.

He rested a hand on her shoulder, and pulled her close to him, and began telling her it was ok to let it out. She began balling, and everyone in her group saw Artemis holding her close, and they walked over, "What's going on?" Nori asked.

Yuuki, looked up, tears staining her face, but a big smile stretched across her face, "He thinks I can be cured, that I can be saved."

"But that's impossible, nobody has found a cure for your illness yet," Jun said, glaring at Artemis for getting her hopes up.

Artemis laughed in the face of that glare, "Ah, but it seems my group of scientists have found something, we've gotten great results so far, but it's gonna be done in a few months, even if it's a temporary cure, we could continue to give her a shot every month, while we find the actual cure, for what we have right now, it seems to cure it, but we still don't know if it's dormant, but it cannot be transferred, even dormant, at least that's what the studies show, but it's still a couple of months in the making, I'm just saying she can be saved from certain death, to being able to live a semi normal life."

"You would have to be rich or something to pull that off, how do we know you're not lying," Nori glared at Artemis, who looked hurt.

"Oh c'mon now, why would you say that, for one, I am rich, and for two, why would I lie about something so serious," Artemis glared at the other's, who saw fire in his eyes, but then they noticed something else, his swords.

"Um… sir, your swords are glowing," Jun said, changing the subject.

"Damn it," Artemis muttered and he pulled them out, but something was different, the full blades were glowing, not just the edge, which said something was wrong.

The blades glowed brighter and brighter, until something unexpected happened, something only a programmer could do, and Artemis had a good idea of who did it, Kayaba.

Two beings sat on the blades, a young girl on Shadow, and a young boy on Hellfire. They both had shoulder pads that resembled the demon skull on each of his blades, and on the girl the nose and eyes of the skulls were glowing blood red, whereas on the boy it was fire red, the colours were that of the blades they sat on. The girl had long black hair, where the boy had short, spiky flame coloured hair, the girl was wearing a red and black dress, and the boy was wearing a black vest, and black pants, with a black bandana.

"Hellfire, I told you it was a bad time to reveal ourselves, that was terrible timing on your part," the girl said to the boy, who scowled at her.

"Hey, I wanted to make an entrance, if you ask me, it's perfect timing, Shadow," the boy, Hellfire, replied, sticking his tongue out at the girl, Shadow.

"Um… can someone tell me what's going on over here," Asuna said, who'd gotten tired of waiting and walked over, only to see two little kids, sitting with their backs turned on each other.

"I don't know how about we ask these two," Artemis said, directing his attention to the children who have yet to move from their seats on his weapons.

"Oh, my apologies," Shadow said, bowing to him, "we are the entities that reside in your swords, my name is Shadow, and this little hot head is Hellfire, and you are our daddy," she looked at him hopefully.

"Your what?" He asked surprised.

"Our daddy," The little girl pouted, but Artemis picked her up, and smiled.

"I guess daddy it is then," He began laughing, Hellfire, picked himself up off of his swords, which were back to normal, and Artemis set Shadow down, and picked up his swords and resheathed them, he looked to the other's and said, "Looks like I'm gonna be a little busy, so I got to go, see ya," He picked up both Shadow and Hellfire, and walked out of the bar, he then used a home teleport, and immediately saw Leafa waiting at the door for him.

"Honey, I'm home!" Artemis called out, Leafa looked over at him and cried out at the sight of Artemis holding two children, "And I brought surprises," He finished, laughing.

"Who are these two?" Leafa asked him suspiciously, thinking he was cheating on her.

"These two, aw shit, I can't explain it, can you two help me out here," Artemis turned to look at his two, well, now his children.

"Well, we are his swords," Shadow said.

"His what?" Leafa exclaimed.

"Well, you see, I was at the bar with Zekkon, Asuna, and Zekkon's friends, and these two just popped up out of my swords, let me introduce you, this is Shadow," He said looking at Shadow, "And this is Hellfire," He finished looking at Hellfire.

Shadow giggled, "Mommy's funny, isn't she daddy," Shadow laughed cutely.

"Yes, yes she is," Artemis said, laughing alongside her.

"Wait, mommy?" Leafa asked, a little shocked.

"Yup, you're daddy's wife right? That makes you mommy," Shadow giggled some more.

"I guess, I guess I am mommy after all," Leafa muttered, she looked up and smiled, she grabbed Shadow out of Artemis's hands and held her tight, "I'm mommy."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: We do not own Sword Art Online**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark Wolf Knight3**

 **Oblivion is owned by** **Urolutze**

 **Roxas is by** **the 2 tailed fox**

Artemis was rushing around behind a large group of players, everyone of them going to raid floor 27, the floor Yuuki was trying to raid, and he wouldn't let them do that.

He looked over to Kirito and nodded, they were at the place they needed to be, as the large group had come to a stop. Artemis and Kirito weren't the only ones there either, Oblivion, Wolf, and Nero were all there, and Klein was on his way.

The group did a wall run over the group of raiders, landing in front of them, Kirito smiled, "That's far enough boys, if you want to raid the boss room, you'll have to get past us," he then looked up surprised.

Shadow and Hellfire, were running across the wall and slid to a stop beside Artemis, Shadow holding a ball of, well, Shadow, and Hellfire, holding a fireball, their eyes were dark, and the group across from them were surprised, but then laughed, "looks like you will have to protect those kids instead," and they began casting spells, each flying towards Kirito.

Kirito smirked, and expertly cut through each of the spells, "What?!" The raid group leader said surprised, you can't cut through spells, that's impossible!"

"When you are used to cutting through his caliber rifle rounds, this is nothing," Kirito said.

"Now kids, show them what you've got," Artemis said, smirking, surprising everyone in his group.

The kids began rapidly blasting holes in the enemy lines, blasting them back, explosions, were everywhere.

"Now you can stop, daddy wants some fun," Artemis said sinisterly, and the kids nodded, stepping back, and Artemis and his friends jumped into the fray, right when Klein arrived.

"What took you so long," Kirito yelled.

"Took a wrong turn, hope I'm not too late," Klein yelled back.

"Not at all, old friend!" Kirito responded, as he cut down one of his attacker's with Excalibur.

Artemis rushed in with his two swords, Shadow and Hellfire, and sliced an unexpecting attacker, killing him, and he turned to block a strike coming from behind him, he then held the block and stabbed the man in the abdomen, throwing him off, and he finished him off with a kick to the head.

Nero was swinging his warhammer around, anyone hit by it was killed instantly, and Nero relished in their deaths.

Wolf swung his khopesh, it impacting a guy's shield hard enough to break it, and he kicked him away to engage a man attacking from the left, easily cutting him down with a strike to the stomach, he turned back to the previously downed man, and saw him charging him with his mace, Wolf wasn't quick enough however, and his khopesh was swiped out of his hands, though that didn't matter to Wolf, as he caught the second strike in his hand, and swung the man around to get struck by his guildmate, Wolf caught the mace as it fell, skipping out of the way of a strike, and found himself surrounded, which Artemis and Oblivion joined him, and they all struck them down, they were inexperienced with PVP, something the group of friends were extremely good at. Wolf grabbed his khopesh, and sheathed it as he bashed someone's skull in.

Oblivion was rushing around striking any opponent he could, but he wasn't taking into mind he wasn't by any means a tank, and he was being followed by a trail of angry raiders, he took this as a reason to stay on the move, allowing Artemis to come in and destroy the trail, something Oblivion was very grateful of.

Shadow and Hellfire began casting their spells again, having some fun of their own, blasting away many of the raiders.

Artemis looked back at where Asuna and her new group of friends had entered the boss room, and he looked back, and he rushed the boss room, just to see if it was locked and luckily, it was, they were good to go, "Guys, time to fall back, the mission is complete!" he called.

Everyone charged past the enemy raiders, and fled the dungeon, Artemis returned Hellfire and Shadow to Leafa, and he went to the first floor to see the new dungeon cleared list.

He saw the group of friends appear and he smiled at them, he waved and Yuuki waved back, "Thank you for coming when you did," Yuuki said, approaching him.

"You're very welcome, now I'll tell you now, don't worry, if Asuna asks you about your sister, just tell her the truth, don't worry about telling her about yourself, just about your sister, and no specifics, ok?" Artemis told her, which she was surprised that he knew about her sister.

"Um… ok, but I don't like that subject-" Yuuki was interrupted by Artemis, who patted her head.

"Don't worry, if you don't want to tell her, I will, no specifics, because that's up to you to tell her, not me," Artemis reassured her.

"Thanks, can you tell me my future, if you know it that is," she asked him.

"I will, but you won't like it, are you sure you want to hear it, though it's the reason I began funding AIDS research," Artemis said.

"Yes, especially if you're going to prevent it," Yuuki replied.

"In my universe, you die in Asuna's arms, surrounded by all your friends, and well, everyone in ALO," Artemis answered.

Yuuki gasped, and gave him a hug, but was then called over by Asuna to go take a picture, which Artemis took, but then Asuna asked the crucial question, "Back in the battle, you called me sis, I mean I'm fine with it, I actually really like it actually," This was too much for Yuuki, Artemis had overestimated her emotional strength, she opened her menu and logged off right there and then.

Artemis laughed, "That's a very touchy subject for her, you'll find out later, if ever," He said walking away.

 **3 Days Later**

Caleb was sitting beside Kazuto, helping him on a project for a tech class he was in, though it was mainly for Yui.

He saw Asuna burst through the door to the roof where they were seated, she rushed Kirito and began to cry softly.

"It's ok, you want to see her again right?" Kirito asked, and Asuna nodded, "Well I have an idea of where she's at, she's at the Yokohama North General Hospital, using the medicuboid."

"Her name's Yuuki Konno, she's 15 and that's all I'll tell you, the rest she can tell you herself, but even then, I'm coming with you," Caleb said, standing up.

 **20 minutes later**

After Caleb drove Asuna to the hospital and Caleb walked in with her, they waited for service, and they were sitting down in chairs by a window.

"Why is she on a VR system in a hospital?" Asuna asked.

"You'll find out, don't worry about it just yet." Caleb said, before a man walked over and sat down.

"You two are here to see Yuuki, right?" The man asked.

"Indeed we are. Asuna here wants to know about why she's here on a VR system." Caleb said.

"All right, well before we do anything else, let me introduce myself. I am ." The man said, gesturing Caleb for a handshake.

"I'm Caleb Kumar, and this is Asuna Yuuki." Caleb said, shaking Kurahashi's hand.

He sat the two teenagers down, "Yuuki told me that you two would be looking for her, but I told her that you would never find her here, so it surprised me when an Asuna Yuuki arrived looking for her."

"Well, I'm very good at what I do," Caleb said.

"And what is it you do?" the doctor asked.

"Finding people, whether it be by following the code trail online, or spotting them in public, I can do it, I didn't survive SAO because I was stupid, nor did I find every one of the Laughing Coffin outposts by sheer luck, I know what I'm doing," Caleb responded.

"I'm surprised, you were in SAO, it's amazing you survived," the doctor said.

"Well, my track record isn't so clean, you wouldn't want to know what I did, even if it was to protect the rest of the population of Aincrad," Caleb said glumly.

"Well, whatever you did, it's done now, but now back to my patient Yuuki, she gave me permission to tell you what her situation was if you found her, but once you hear it, you'll never forget it, do you still want to know?" The doctor asked.

"Yes, I must know, because she's my friend," Asuna said stubbornly.

"I already know all the details, but I will hear it again, because I wish to be there for her," Caleb said, standing up.

Dr. Kurahashi stood with him, "Follow me if you will," The two followed him down a hallway, "Now her condition is very dire, when her mother birthed her and her sister, Aiko, she lost a lot of blood, and had to have a transfusion, but the blood she received was contaminated with a virus called HIV, now that was treatable, but when she learned about it, it had already been transferred to her daughters, and had become full blown AIDS, three years ago, when the Medicuboid was to be tested, the doctors chose Yuuki to test it, and it was the very year that her mother died from her disease."

They had arrived at the hospital room, and Caleb was already prepared for what he was going to see, "We have to be in this room, on the other side of the glass, be prepared for what you are going to see," He turned on the lights in Yuuki's room, it was saddening, her skin was pale, she looked malnourished and she looked very sickly.

"Yuuki!" Asuna rushed to the glass, and Caleb looked at the Medicuboid, saw a camera, and waved at it, smiling softly.

"Her sister, Aiko, died just last year, and now, Yuuki is the last in her immediate family, and now this is all that's left of the poor girl, we can't feed her properly because her AIDS is so severe that it prevents her from eating solid food," the doctor finished.

"Ok, didn't hear that before, but still, she's got until March 29th, am I right, doc?" Caleb asked.

"Well, something like that," Dr. Kurahashi said.

"Great, we still have time left, I mean, hopefully the cure is going to be finished," Caleb exclaimed.

"Wait, cure?" Asuna and the doctor asked at the same time.

"Yup, I've been funding a cure for a few years now, and it seems complete, but we aren't sure it the virus is dormant, but even still, if it is dormant, it's not transferring to anybody, so our studies say, so by March 20th the tests will be done, and we will be able to give her the first dose, that is if you'll let us," Caleb said happily.

"You think you may have the cure? Why don't you give it to us now?" Dr. Kurahashi asked, a little agitated.

"We just completed it, we don't know if it'll come back or not, but when the tests are finished, even if it's not the complete cure, we will give you the formula and everything, and you can give it to her every month afterwards, but just to be safe, keep her here for another 3 months, just so she can get her strength up, and begin eating healthy," Caleb reassured the doctor, who nodded, understanding.

"Caleb! Asuna!" a voice came through an intercom in the room.

"Hello Yuuki, surprised to see me, I promised you that I wouldn't tell her, but not surprising, her boyfriend found out, so I came along with her," Caleb said.

"Oh, it's ok, but I am surprised to see you, but more so Asuna, how did her boyfriend find out?" Yuuki asked, laughing.

"I actually don't know, he found out about it by himself," Caleb replied.

"Yuuki, why didn't you tell me? I wanted to be there for you, you seemed so upset when you logged out, but now I know why you felt that way," Caleb looked at her when she smacked his shoulder, "And why didn't you tell me? I thought we were friends,"

Caleb laughed, "That was up to her to tell you, not me."

"Ugh, fine, so Yuuki, join me in ALO tomorrow, I want to talk to you," Asuna said.

"I've got a better idea, hey doc, can she use the Amusphere next door, sorry Caleb, we don't have a second one," Yuuki apologized.

"It's ok, it's your time anyways, I gotta go home, I've got to help some friends out, so see you," Caleb said as he left, he heard the doctor say it was all fine with him for her to use the Amusphere.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: We do not own Sword Art Online**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark Wolf Knight3**

 **Oblivion is owned by** **Urolutze**

 **Roxas is by** **the 2 tailed fox**

 **A/N: Prepare for a long chapter, as this one is a 100 man tournament and will feature multiple duels with many of the characters of the story pitted against each other in one on one fights. Enjoy the story.**

 **February 2026**

There was a 100 man tournament going on in ALO, and Artemis was in it, as well as Kirito, Asuna, Yuuki, Leafa, Sinon, Nero, Oblivion, and Wolf. Artemis knew he was going to have to fight with heart, as he hasn't duelled some like Oblivion and Wolf himself, though their stats were balanced as they were in a tournament.

Asuna spawned into the arena and saw a young man with his sword ready in the distance. Asuna then charged the man and as she did, she noticed the man was attacking, so Asuna moved her rapier from being pointed towards the man, to across her chest. The man swung his blade to Asuna's left, but Asuna quickly blocked his attack. She kept her focus on the defensive, and the man swung upwards, but Asuna swung at the blade and blocked it from moving close to her, and she then attempted to disarm the man by hitting the sword with enough force that the blade would fly off the man's hand. The man couldn't keep his grip on the handle, as he was sweating from swinging his blade with force, and he also got tired. Asuna then swung upwards towards the man's blade and the sword flew out his hand. Asuna then stabbed the man through the chest and soon enough it froze, killing the man…

Leafa spawned in and saw a man wielding a claymore. Leafa charged the man and swung her Katana to the man's side, but her attack was blocked, and the man swung at Leafa's chest, but Leafa quickly moved her Katana to the man's blade and pushed it away. As the man recovered, Leafa swung her katana to the man's skull, but the man was able to block the attack, and he pushed Leafa's blade away. Leafa fell back and as she got her sword back into position, she moved it to her chest, going on the defensive now. The man tried jumping over Leafa, however, as he did, Leafa landed a cut on his heel, and the man landed on his foot, dealing extra damage to the wound and depleting his HP more. The man got himself out of slight shock and ran towards Leafa, focusing on the offensive. Leafa however took a swing at the man's hand after she moved to the left and cut off the hand, disarming him. Leafa then kicked the man in the gut, leaving him to keel over in pain, and as he landed, Leafa finished the man by stabbing through the man's chest, ending him…

Kirito spawned into the arena and saw a young man standing across from him. Kirito was wielding Elucidator and Excalibur, and the man went into shock seeing as he had the holy sword itself, and not just a fake that was earned from completing a kill quest.

"Surprised to see me wield two blades, and the Excalibur?" Kirito asked the man.

The man shook off his shock and said, "So, you're Kirito. The one who got Excalibur and wields two swords. Though, I thought greatswords like the Excalibur were supposed to be held with two hands.

Kirito then slapped on a big smirk on his face and said, "Yeah, maybe so, but one hand gets the job done for me." Kirito then wiped the smirk off his face and charged the man and swung Elucidator towards the man's side. The man blocked this attack and backed away as he saw Excalibur coming towards him. Kirito then ran to the guy again and swung Excalibur to the man's chest, though the man blocked it and moved the Excalibur to the side, though Kirito had his Elucidator coming into towards the man's skull, however, the man moved to the side and fell back. Kirito then focused on the defensive to recover his stamina, and he blocked an attack coming in from the left with the Elucidator, and pushed the blade away. The man then swung again, but downwards towards Kirito's shoulder, however, Kirito blocked again using the Excalibur. Kirito then fell back and for a moment, he took the time to take a deep breath, only until he then let out a battle cry and ran towards the man on full offence and swung the Elucidator at the man's blade with enough force to knock it to the side. Kirito then pointed his Excalibur to the man's chest and thrust the holy sword into the man's heart, soon killing him…

Artemis spawned in and in the distance, he saw Roxas, with his longsword pointed towards the ground.

"Ah, Roxas, my old frienemy. Why don't we make this a little more interesting, shall we?" Artemis said, before snapping his fingers and his swords appearing in his hands, "A little trick I learned, you see, these weapons are bound to me, made so by Kayaba himself, so I can bring them to me whenever I need them."

"A neat trick, let's see if your skills can match your arrogance," Roxas charged Artemis, swiping at him horizontally, which Artemis blocked easily, but then Roxas began mixing things up, and things got a little more interesting, Roxas came at him with a vertical slash, intent on ending Artemis's life, but that little surprise did nothing, for Artemis knew this trick, it was to lull your opponent into a false sense of security, and then strike with a fast attack from any direction. Artemis side stepped the attack and took a few swipes of his own, forcing Roxas back a bit, before he caught his footing again and began blocking his attacks. Artemis smiled and began what he called his dance of death, it was a nonstop attack that wasn't in the game, it was just a flurry of basic attacks, but it was devastating nonetheless. He swung horizontally with Hellfire, while at the same time swinging Shadow in a diagonal arc, something no non dual wielder could block, but when Roxas stepped back, Artemis stepped around and attacked him from the side, which caught Roxas off guard by the speed of Artemis's movement, Artemis spun slicing multiple times, and landing more than a few on Roxas, forcing him on the defencive, Artemis smirked, and his blades sung their song of death, everyone in the stadium heard the sound of blades rapidly cutting the air, and Roxas's fans watched in horror, as Artemis fell to his knees and spun around behind Roxas, before rising, slicing Roxas into the air, him falling on his knees but as he went to stand, he felt the heat of Hellfire grazing his shoulder, and the cold steel of Shadow as both blades were crossed, he smiled, he knew defeat when it sat behind him, ready to cut off his head.

Oblivion spawned into the arena and saw Nori, standing in the distance.

"You know, using a sword and a shield for so long gets boring sometimes, so I'm gonna show you something. A nice old pair of claws that helped me raid the Laughing Coffin headquarters." Oblivion said, equipping his claws, and revealing the blades shortly after.

"Oh those are cool, though I'm still gonna kick your butt." Nori said, charging at Oblivion, who he also charged at her.

Oblivion used the front of his claws as a guard and blocked an attack coming in towards his head. Oblivion then took his other claw and pushed Nori's staff out of the way, though Nori kept her grip tight and pushed Oblivions claw as he did this, as so Oblivion fell back.

"My butt? Well I guess you're right as the word Ass typically means Donkey, and I sure as hell don't have a donkey sticking out my butt." Oblivion said, jokingly, though keeping his guard up.

Nori charged at Oblivion and went for his legs, though Oblivion blocked this by quickly moving his claw down to the ground and pinned Nori's staff in between two of the blades, and Oblivion kept his claw in the ground.

"If I had a donkey in my ass, I'd probably do something about it instead of let it live in there." Oblivion said.

"I'm gonna shove a donkey up your ass if you don't shut it!" Nori threatened. She then pried Oblivion's claw out of the ground, and as she did this, Oblivion moved his other claw into position, as Nori swung at Oblivion's head. Oblivion blocked the attack and then ran to the left of the arena and then he activated his Blur of Aura skill and circled around Nori, creating a force of wind around her, like a tornado, but not a big force however. Nori was pinned in the area and wind was blowing in her face and as Oblivion circled around Nori, he quickly disarmed her and stopped in his tracks and stabbed her through her chest.

"Nice knowing you." Oblivion said, as Nori exploded into polygonal shards…

Wolf spawned into the arena and saw Jun in the distance with his greatsword ready. Wolf drew his khopesh and as he moved it, a trail of flames emitted from the blade. Wolf then charged Jun and slid beside him and he then got up and swung his khopesh at Jun, however, he blocked the attack. Wolf fell back and ran towards Jun again and tried to push away Jun's greatsword, however Jun swung at Wolf's khopesh and Wolf had to keep his grip tight and Wolf fell back again. Wolf knew now in order to land a hit, he had to knock his blade away and then swing at Jun whenever he was open, or he could jump over him and land a hit on him in mid air. Wolf ran towards Jun, who had his greatsword ready, and whipped his khopesh at Jun's sword with enough force that the sword was knocked out of the way, and Wolf swung his khopesh again at Jun only this time, he cut him across his abdominal wall. Wolf then jumped over him and stabbed him through the back, heating his insides up in the process and killed Jun shortly after…

Nero spawned in the arena and saw a man wielding a greatsword. He decided to mock him, as he would before any fight. "Nice fucking fat sword you got there."

The man smirked, "Nice fucking hammer, you get it from Halo?"

"Uncultured swine, it might act like it but it doesn't, you blind fuck." Nero said, smirking wider.

"Yeah I know that, though you don't look like much." The man said.

"We just concluded that you are a blind fuck, so looks deceive you." Nero said, charging the man. Once he reached the man, he swung his warhammer towards the man's greatsword. Once the hammer impacted the blade, it flew out of the man's hand and broke his hand in the process, leaving him defenceless.

"I told you that you're a blind fuck." Nero said. Nero then swung at him and launched him upwards into the air, and once he landed, he exploded into bright polygonal shards...

Sinon spawned, she knew that her only chance was to break out the daggers when her opponent got close, or she ran out of arrows. She saw another girl, also using a bow, but something seemed off about her, like she was only in it for the murder, which rubbed Sinon the wrong way.

"What you waiting for, shoot me, I'll prove to you I'm better in every way," The girl called from across the arena, making the crowd 'ooh' and Sinon, scowled, if a fight this bitch wanted, a fight she will get.

Sinon shot at the girl, only for her to smack it out of the air with her bow, "That all you got? This'll be easier than I thought," The girl laughed hysterically, scaring the people who were watching.

"I've killed more people than you've seen, you don't want to know what I'm capable of," Sinon replied.

"Yeah, but they've all respawned, so you may be a good assassin, but not a true fighter," The girl said, still laughing.

"Have you heard of SAO?" Sinon asked.

"Yeah? Why?" The girl asked, confused.

"I was a mercenary in that game, I killed people, so you want to know what I've really got, you'll see what I've got," she said, shocking everyone in the stadium.

"S-so, you're a murderer?" The girl said, falling back.

Sinon smirked, and began to shoot a volley of arrows toward her opponent, the girl desperately attempted to block them, but her footing was terrible, and her form was very staggered. She was hit multiple times, causing her to fall to her knees.

"Finish me off then, murderer," The girl taunted.

"You know what? I think I will, I only kill murderers anyways, but now, I think a cocky bitch deserves to be put down," She walked over and drew her bow, aiming directly at the girl's head, and shot.

Asuna was pitted against a pervy man, who couldn't stop ogling her, which only served to piss her off.

"Oh c'mon babe, your boyfriend can't be so great, he's a little kid, what you need is a real man to protect you, surely that little boy couldn't protect that pretty face," the man said.

"If you think you have a chance, drop it, you're nothing but a perv that's bad mouthing the savior of SAO, and might I add, his friend is the strongest fighter in ALO, and only two people have ever beat him in a fight, Zekkon, and Artemis, and I can match up with Zekkon, so if you want to go toe to toe with him, you'll have to beat me!" Asuna yelled at him.

"Oh, really, you're saying your boyfriend is the legendary Kirito, well, I guess I'll prove to you that I'm worthy," He finished by yelling out a battlecry and charging Asuna with his giant mace, which she easily dodged, she swayed on her toes, easily moving out of the way of his attacks without even drawing her rapier, but after a few minutes, he was getting weaker, he couldn't keep up the attack, and Asuna took this chance and whipped out her rapier, and began her multiattack, it stabbed him painfully, and he was quickly put out of his misery.

 **The Next Day**

Today, the first game of the day was Artemis against Sinon, a friend against friend, so nobody expected a serious match out of them, but they were wrong.

Artemis went at her in full attack, while deflecting her arrows, which she quickly abandoned, she drew her daggers, and blocked his first attack and his second, but his attack was so relentless she didn't have the chance to go on the offensive. She saw Artemis smile at her before she realized her mistake, she had left her right side completely open, she hurried to close the gap, but she was too late, she felt agonizing pain as she felt Shadow enter her body, but for some reason she was left to suffer, no finish off, just left to rot, the life drain slowly driving her insane with pain, Artemis saw the extreme pain on her face, and he knew he needed to end it, so he rested Hellfire across her throat and cut off her head.

He looked down at where her remaining light sat, and whispered, "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you that bad, I seemed to have misaimed my stab, thus not killing you instantly," he then turned and walked away.

The next match was an interesting one, almost everyone knew they were lovers, and they were now pitted against each other, the match was one between Kirito and Asuna, people argued about who was better, and now, the answer was soon to come, but there was something that surprised the Kirito fans, he wasn't dual wielding, in fact he was only using his sword, the Elucidator, which was legendary in it's own right, but everyone expected him to be dual wielding with Excalibur, which was obviously better than his Elucidator.

Kirito walked over to Asuna, and gave her a good luck kiss, which pleased the crowd, and he walked back to the center of the arena, and they smiled at each other, and Kirito bowed, before charging Asuna, swiping his sword at the neck which she blocked, and went to stab his exposed stomach, which he turned his body away from the attack, while he spun, he swung at her legs, a cut landing, and he steeled himself against the cry of pain she emitted. He rose behind her, and went to stab her from behind, aiming to kill her without extended pain, but as his blade entered, she cried out again and turned swiping at him, causing him to withdraw and swipe the attack away, immediately slicing at her throat, but she flipped away, though he still landed a hit on her leg, cutting off her right calf, causing her scream and stumble, she began to tear up, but she was far from finished, she improvised in the most painful way possible, causing Kirito to call for her to stop, she cut off her left leg at equal length, even though it caused her a tremendous amount of pain, she endured it, and even walking on the stumps hurt, but she kept a straight face, Kirito resolved to end her pain as quickly as possible and charged her, she waddled her way at him, her face scrunched up in pure agony, but she didn't cry out, she held her stoic demeanor, but Kirito saw the pain she was in, so he did the one thing he could, he smacked her sword as hard as he could, smacking it away from her weakening grasp, and he stabbed her in the heart, killing her instantly.

The next match was Nero against Leafa, who knew she was in trouble, but that didn't stop her, she vowed to give it her all.

"Hey babe, I'm gonna crush you good, I don't care if you're Artemis's girlfriend," Nero called at her.

"Don't worry, I don't mind, but don't think you're gonna get off scot free either," She winked at him, causing him to take a step back.

Leafa took this chance to rush him, but he recovered and took a swing at her, which she sidestepped and sliced his stomach, before she was clocked by the pole of the hammer, but she was confused, as the hammer didn't blast her away, that's when she realized that only the end of the hammer that blasts air upon impact, thus she figured out how she could block his attacks, but she still needed to get up, her head hurt, but she wasn't going to let that keep her down. She rolled out of the way of the hammer slamming down right where she was laying a moment before, she skipped to her feet and shook her head to clear the dizziness she now felt. She once again moved out of the way of his attack, but now she had one goal in mind, to survive, and it didn't matter if she had to fight dirty to do it. She ducked under a strike that Nero swung, and went straight for his legs, slicing them with her katana, but Nero stopped swinging his hammer and picked her up by the back of her collar, and she went for a strike at his face, she was going all out, no holding back, but as she swung, Nero threw her into the air, and she was caught off guard by the action, and didn't react in time to catch a swing to the stomach, smashing her away painfully, and she was torn apart by the force of the strike, even before the enchantment kicked in, which caused her to scream in pure agony, making Artemis growl in the stands. The death of his girlfriend pained him deeply, and saw that Nero was his next opponent in the bracket. Nero would know pain, he knew that Nero had no chance, but he wanted Nero to feel true pain.

The next battle was, Wolf was pitted against a young kid, one who Wolf wondered, how he managed to get past his last opponent, until he realized that this kids last opponent was Recon, a weakling.

Wolf walked towards his opponent slowly, on the defensive. Wolf's opponent was wielding a mace, and a shield, something that Wolf hadn't seen too much of. The kid ran towards Wolf on the full offensive and he swung his mace at Wolf while keeping his guard up with his shield. Wolf dodged the attack, and swung his khopesh at the boy's shoulder, landing a cut.

Wolf got his guard back up, and as he did, he said, "I see you killed Recon in your last fight. He was always a weakling." As Wolf said this, Artemis who was in the stands heard Recon start rambling.

"Yeah well he was gonna lose at one point anyways." The kid said, before charging Wolf and attempting to shield bash him, but Wolf jumped over him and stabbed him through his left shoulder blade, forcing him to drop his shield and have to use his mace.

"My friend uses a sword and a shield, and he tried using a mace once, and he said it's way too big to wield with a shield, so you know what? Try using that mace without a big shield in your way." Wolf said, smirking.

The kid swung at him and Wolf blocked the attack flawlessly. "Yeah, what else does your friend use?"

Wolf swung his khopesh at the boy and he blocked the attack. "A pair of claws that suck the life out of you the more time their touching your insides." Wolf then quickly cut the man's hand off and finished him by stabbing him through the chest.

"But I prefer to set their insides on fire." Wolf said, smirking, as the boy exploded into shards.

Oblivion spawned into the arena and saw a girl wielding a battleaxe, who oddly enough reminded Oblivion of his old friend Platia, who was killed by Deathgun, however Oblivion avenged her after Artemis killed Deathgun in GGO.

"Aw shit, you remind me of an old friend of mine I met when I first logged into SAO." Oblivion said.

"Y-you were in SAO?" The girl asked.

"Yeah I was, and I was war hero who raided Laughing Coffin's headquarters." Oblivion said.

The girl gasped and asked, "Okay, who was this friend of yours?"

"I never knew her real name, but her handle in SAO was Platia. She was killed inside a dungeon on floor 21." Oblivion said.

The girl gasped and fell onto her knees, and Oblivion was yet to know why she did so, until she said, "Platia was her real name, and she was m-my twin sister."

Oblivion heard this and he dropped his weapons as the girl over on the other side dropped her axe. "Is that true?"

The girl started crying and said, "Yes she was."

Oblivion then put his hand on her shoulder and whispered, "Well, you know, my life has been a sh- or, crap hole since she died, and all I wanted to do was avenge her throughout the course of playing. I joined a mercenary guild named the Shadow Wolf Clan, and met my old friends who I thought I would never see again. We raided Laughing Coffin's headquarters and wiped them from existence."

Oblivion let go and the girl said, "You know what? I need some time, so I'll resign." It was then, a resign notice popped up on her menu, and she resigned.

"Well, I mean once you get over this, send me a message and I'll get you to meet my friends." Oblivion said.

Artemis had been waiting for this fight after he witnessed Nero smash and kill his girlfriend in the arena. The two spawned and stood from each other. "I fucking hate you man. You know why?" Artemis said, glaring at Nero menacingly.

"Why? Because I threw your girlfriend up in the air and smashed her into hamburger meat? Ah someone should have caught her head in there and kept it." Nero said, laughing.

Artemis just stared at him, with the same menacing look in his eyes that his hair covered, and his hood covered his face in shadow, leaving Nero no clue what he was about to do. Artemis soon walked over to Nero and Nero swung his hammer towards Artemis, however Artemis moved out of the way quickly and crossed his blades and stabbed then down on the ground, pinning Nero's warhammer. Artemis then let go and then grabbed Nero's neck and punched him right in the gut, and Nero let go of his hammer. Artemis then threw a punch straight at Nero's face, knocking him down. Artemis went and got his two swords and Artemis walked back and started beating Nero over the face with the hilt of Shadow. Everyone looked at this horrified and soon, Artemis kicked Nero over the side of his head and Artemis stabbed Nero multiple times with Shadow, first stabbed his legs. The arena was filled with screams as Artemis brutally stabbed Nero multiple times. Soon Artemis stopped, and he took Shadow and smashed Nero's face with the crossguard multiple times. It was then Nero started screaming in pain and agony.

"Do you feel pain yet? Or are you just fucking playing around with me!?" Artemis yelled at him loudly.

"I-I'm sorry!" Nero yelled.

Artemis stopped for a moment, and said, "Don't fucking hurt my wife again like that." Artemis said, punctuating every word with a bash to the face.

Nero continued screaming, and it was then Artemis decided to finish him. Artemis took both his blades and stabbed Nero through the head...

Wolf spawned into the arena, and saw General Eugene standing in the distance. "Hey, long time no see." Wolf said. Wolf then got into action and charged the general, remembering he can't block his attacks and he slid under a swipe coming at him from the left. Wolf got up and swung at the General and the attack was blocked quickly, but Wolf followed that up with a multitude of swings, all of which were deflected by the General. The General swung at Wolf but Wolf managed to move out of the way, but the General landed a small cut on Wolf's arm. Wolf got angry and he activated Blood Rage and swung his Khopesh multiple times with only one goal, to tire out at the General by having him block multiple attacks. His Blood Wrath was cut short by a swift dodge by the General, and the General swung at Wolf's wrist and cut off his hand, leaving him defenseless. Wolf fell down in agony, and Oblivion was watching closely, worried about what was about to happen next. The General then cut Wolf's other hand off and took him by the neck and threw him upwards and cut Wolf in half. The General then stabbed Wolf through the heart, though killing him and ending the pain he caused, Wolf still felt immense amounts of pain before he was killed…

Artemis spawned into the arena and saw a young man wielding a war axe and a circular shield. Artemis rushed the man and bashed the shield with the crossguard of Hellfire, and heat soon flowed through the metal slowly, reaching the man's hand, burning it, causing the man to drop his shield. Artemis kicked it to the side and swung Shadow towards the Axe, but was blocked, however Artemis already had Hellfire coming right at the man's head, but he ducked and rolled backwards. The man charged Artemis and Artemis blocked the attack with Hellfire and then swung Shadow at the man's skull, but the man moved, however, his Axe was latched onto Hellfire and Artemis ended up cutting off the man's arm unexpectedly, causing great pain. Artemis had to finish him then, so he sent Shadow through his brain, killing him…

Oblivion spawned into the arena and saw his next target, General Eugene, who killed Wolf brutally and seeked to avenge his brutal death. Oblivion decided since that the sword can't be blocked and instead fades through most blades, that he switches his sword and shield for the claws. Oblivion ran towards Eugene with a face of fury and slid and went for his legs and landed a cut on his ankle. Oblivion quickly got up and ran to the left and jumped at Eugene and attempted to stab his skull with his right claw, but mainly he wanted him to block him. Eugene blocked Oblivion while he was airborne, but at the same time he already had his left claw heading towards Eugene's neck, but he dodged the attack and Oblivion fell back far across the arena.

"You killed my friend Wolf and put him through great pain and I had to watch as you fucking cut him in half as he was still alive. I might not be able to meet your strength, but I can very well surpass your speed easily." Oblivion said, smirking. Oblivion then activated Blur of Aura and also activated a few more agility skills increasing his agility more slightly and ran around the arena, hoping to create a tornado much bigger than the one he formed around Nori earlier. Surprisingly, a force of wind circled inside the Arena and Eugene was already airborne and spinning in the tornado. Oblivion then kept running and the tornado soon started going faster, and Oblivion stopped and left the tornado to spin for awhile, but the tornado soon stopped and Eugene fell on the ground, leaving him in the yellow, and his blade was far from him. Oblivion ran towards him and kicked him in the head, he then stomped on his gut and retracted the claws and started punching Eugene in the face multiple times until he got into the red. Oblivion then got up and drew his claws and stabbed him through the skull, ending the fight.

After Oblivion finished off Eugene, soon enough, Artemis spawned into the arena and the two stood facing each other.

"I just killed the General, which I consider a good accomplishment, wouldn't you say?" Oblivion asked.

"Somewhat. The General was never too fast in combat, but he is a good fighter nonetheless. You probably overtook him with your Blur of Aura skill." Artemis said, smirking. The crowd let out a big 'Ooh'.

"Oh course I did, I sent him flying by creating a tornado. He slowly and brutally killed my friend, so I let him feel the same pain he did before I showed my claw into his brain." Oblivion said.

"Oh really? I did the same thing, only I brutally murdered him. He killed Leafa brutally. Don't be surprised when I tell you it was Nero who killed her brutally like that, so I had to give him a sip of his own medicine for once." Artemis said.

"Oh man, you'll have to tell me about it later. Anyways, let's have a full on fight, no backing down." Oblivion said, with a serious tone now

Artemis smiled to this and said, "Alright then, no backing down, a full on fight, I like that." Artemis then charged at Oblivion with the goal of cutting his hand off, however Oblivion slid and kicked his leg, but Artemis stood up quickly and so did Oblivion. Artemis swung Shadow at Oblivion but was blocked quickly by the guard in front of Oblivion's fist. Oblivion then fell back, and gestured Artemis to a halt.

"You know what I've been wondering?" Oblivion asked.

"All right, tell me." Artemis said.

"I wanted to know what was stronger. Black Flame Flurry, or Blur of Aura. How about we activate them at the same time and put them to the test, shall we!" Oblivion said, the arena was soon filled with screams and cheering, as they all waited anxiously to see the two fastest players in ALO activate their unique skills and fight using them.

"All right sure. Remember I'm faster when I use Demonic Empowerment too." Artemis said, smirking.

"Well let's quit boasting and get to it then." Oblivion said, also smirking.

The two activated their skills and soon the two charged at each other and the arena soon was filled with blasts of wind. Oblivion threw punches at Artemis but they were all quickly blocked and Artemis kept swinging Shadow and Hellfire at Oblivion, but before any serious damage was done yet, Oblivion kept blocking, until it was then Oblivion soon started to grow tired, and Artemis landed more cuts on Oblivion, but then Oblivion got himself together again and kept blocking the attacks coming from Artemis. Oblivion landed a few cuts on Artemis, but Artemis then kicked Oblivion right in the crotch area and the two stopped their skills there as Oblivion was on the ground.

"Dude, getting kicked in the balls doesn't hurt that much." Artemis said, jokingly.

"I know that, but a part of your boot fucking stabbed me right in the dick." Oblivion said.

"Oh?" Artemis said. He began laughing, and he then stabbed Oblivion through the skull, ending him. The crowd cheered as they received one of the most anticipated fights in ALO, and a little bonus at the end too.

This was the second last fight of the tournament. The crowd exploded into cheer as they saw a young girl facing a young man dressed in black both with their weapons drawn. Kirito and Yuuki faced each other in the arena and though, Kirito was only wielding his Elucidator, and not wielding his Excalibur.

Kirito smirked before charging Yuuki and swinging his Elucidator at Yuuki, though she quickly blocked the attack and went around him and went for a stab, but Kirito pushed her blade to the side and went kicked at Yuuki's leg, but she was able to fall back quickly enough, and she charged at Kirito once again and swung her blade at Kirito's head, but he ducked quickly and rolled to the side, got up, and swung the Elucidator at Yuuki's head, but she quickly blocked the swing and smacked Kirito's Elucidator multiple times and slid towards Kirito's leg and knocked him down, and Yuuki quickly put him to an end by sending her blade through Kirito's back, and to his heart…

It was the final match in the tournament, and Artemis spawned into the arena and saw Yuuki in the distance, who had her sword ready. Artemis had his two blades ready and charged Yuuki and proceeded to land a hit on her head, though Yuuki quickly blocked and swung at Artemis's other sword multiple times, and Yuuki circled around Artemis, until she was stopped by a swing from Hellfire coming in at her neck, and Yuuki dodged this and she swung at Artemis, but he quickly blocked the attack with Shadow and Artemis fell back and charged at Yuuki again. Artemis swing a horizontal blow heading towards Yuuki's leg, but she quickly blocked the attack, but Artemis had Shadow coming in at Yuuki's head as he was blocked. Yuuki fell back before Shadow could reach her. Yuuki ran towards Artemis and swung at him multiple times and only to get blocked multiple times by both Artemis's blades. It was then, Yuuki decided it was time to pull off the trump card and she ran at Artemis and swung at him with full force with every 11 hits, however Artemis blocked all of the attacks, only except for one and it didn't do much damage to Artemis. It was then that Artemis decided to introduce Yuuki to his two favorite Trump cards, Black Flame Flurry and Demonic Empowerment. Artemis then ran towards Yuuki and swung at her faster than Yuuki could process and Yuuki was soon hit by a Flurry of attacks from Artemis, but she managed to take all 100 hits before hitting 0 on her HP gauge. Yuuki was finished however, and she sat, waiting for Artemis to finish the duel, and so Artemis decapitated her, ending the fight quickly.

The crowd cheered wildly and Artemis was awarded with 1st place. Yuuki came in 2nd, Kirito came in 3rd, Oblivion came in 4th and Wolf came in 5th. Artemis was proud to see that Oblivion and Wolf made it that far in the tournament and he enjoyed the tournament overall. He was gonna celebrate by holding a party in the SWC Headquarters.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: We do not own Sword Art Online**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark Wolf Knight3**

 **Oblivion is owned by** **Urolutze**

 **Roxas is by** **the 2 tailed fox**

 **The next day, SWC Headquarters Recreation Room**

The group of friends celebrated Artemis's victory and the other's high positions in the tournament. Artemis started a pool tournament, and in the end, Oblivion won 1st and he was playing against Wolf in the end. After that they all did their own thing for the rest of the day. Artemis and Leafa had drinks and talked about their experience in the tournament.

"Yeah, Nero threw me up in the air and tore me to shreds back there, that hammer is seriously OP." Leafa said, frowning.

"Yeah well I kicked him in the butt for that, well, maybe a little too much." Artemis said with a soft smile.

"Too much? What did you do?" Leafa asked.

"I disarmed him and beat him up until he said sorry." Artemis said.

"Oh, well you didn't beat him too badly did you?" Leafa asked.

"About that, he's terrified of me now." Artemis said. "I beat him so much, if I did it IRL he'd be dead."

"What the fuck Artemis!?" Leafa yelled, catching the attention of some in the bar.

"Um, well, he hurt you badly, so I hurt him badly. Fair, right?" Artemis said.

Leafa sighed and said, "Never mind about it," as they had gotten the attention of some inside.

Later, Oblivion had received a friend request notification, and he knew who it was and he accepted it and decided to invite them to the bar. The person arrived and Oblivion walked over to Artemis and said, "Well, this is a weird introduction, but I want you to meet someone."

"Hey, she's the girl who resigned after you started talking about Platia." Artemis said.

"Yeah, speaking of which, she's Platia's twin sister." Oblivion said. This caught the attention of everyone in the bar and they heard gasps.

"Really? You can tell?" Artemis asked.

"She looks exactly like her too, except Platia had brownish red hair, while she has sky blue hair, with dark blue streaks." Oblivion said. "Why don't you properly introduce yourself?"

"I'm Fiana, nice to meet you." The girl said.

"Well nice to meet you, I'm Artemis, the leader of the Shadow Wolf Clan, and this is Leafa." Artemis said. It was then Artemis summoned his two children, Shadow and Hellfire to meet Fiana. "Kids, this is Fiana. Fiana, this is Shadow, and this is Hellfire, my two kids."

The girl stuttered for a moment, but she then pulled herself together and said, "Hi, nice to meet you, though why did you name him Hellfire? That's an odd name."

"I didn't name him, they are actually my swords, which I named Shadow and Hellfire, but how about this, I think they deserve new names, as I don't want to confuse my kids with my swords, that would be awkward, how about you name Hellfire, and my girlfriend Leafa names Shadow." Artemis said.

The girl let out a soft gasp and said, "You want me to name him?"

"Sure why not?" Artemis said.

Fiana thought for a moment, until she said, "Leo, how about that?"

"Ooh, I like it, Leafa, what should Shadow's new name be?" Artemis asked.

"Yuno?" Leafa suggested.

"Leafa, you are a fucking genius, I love that name!" Artemis exclaimed, once again, catching the attention of everyone in the bar. "Leo and Yuno it is."

Oblivion smiled and said, "Well, Fiana, I gotta introduce you to my special someone."

"U-m alright then." Fiana said, before they walked off.

"Well, at least he's got someone to remember Platia by." Artemis said.

"Yeah." Leafa said.

"Platia? Who's that?" Yuno asked.

"Well, Platia was a friend of Oblivion's, but she was killed. I guess Fiana is Platia's twin." Artemis said.

"But she came back right? Not forever, mommy died and came back, no one dies forever, right," Yuno asked innocently.

Artemis hissed slightly, not wanting to break his daughter's heart, but he knew she needed to know, but first, he had a question, "Yuno, you were made from my swords right?"

"Yes, but I was only born when you were in pain, I felt strange, I felt like I was watching someone very close to me die," Yuno said before beginning to cry.

"What's wrong sweetie, was it something I said?" Artemis was frantic, he never saw his daughter in such a miserable state, she was always happy.

"No, I just realized, if you die, you're gone forever, and that mean's mommy isn't the real mommy," Artemis picked her up and held her close, but he began laughing.

"Honey, hate to break it to you, but in this world, we can come back, but uncle Oblivion made his friend in another world, surely you've heard of Sword Art Online, because that's where you were truly created, that's where I made the swords that gave me my two little bundles of joy," Artemis said.

"Yeah, I've heard about it, so what about it," Leo said, looking up at Artemis.

"That's where uncle Oblivion's friend died, she's never coming back, in that world, once you die, you're gone, but don't you worry about that now, that world's destroyed, everyone that survived, is safe, no one can ever go back," Artemis reassured his children.

Kirito walked up, "You have your hands full, don't ya, I'm pretty busy with just Yui, but you've got two you've got to look after."

"And my love for them is not split but equal, what's going on with you? Aren't you still mad you lost to Yuuki again, are you, you could've won if you were dual wielding, and I told you to do that before your match, but did you listen, no," Artemis began laughing.

"Whatever, you psychopath, I watched you beat your supposed friend to a pulp, what's that all about, just because he killed your girlfriend, you had to make his life a living hell, man, what a great friend, it's only a tournament," Kirito looked accusingly at Artemis.

"Ah, in the fight's after Roxas, i began to feel like it was life and death, not respawn life and death, but SAO life and death, so when I watched her die, I was locked in the mindset that he killed my girlfriend, and that's how I was for the rest of the tournament, I was only brought to reality when I was declared the winner of the tournament, for I had forgotten it was a tournament, it was weird, images began flashing through my head, I saw the faces of Suguo, Kyouji, and Deathgun, I saw the faces of all of the men I killed, in the real world, and in the virtual, I heard their voices, their screams, their pleas for mercy, I watched myself kill them all again, my mind isn't straight, I see death, everywhere I walk, I hear that one person, calling me a murderer, not just in my head either, I've got people who see me, and remember me from SAO, calling me a murderer, but there's those who protect me, keep me from falling, but even then, it weighs on me heavily, not just because I killed in SAO, but in real life, using torture methods designed to kill, I am no better than the Laughing Coffin, I'm no better than Deathgun, or PoH for that matter, I'm no better than any of them," Artemis rambled, and Kirito was shocked, everyone one of his friends had come over to see what was going on, and witnessed him pouring his heart out to Kirito, but luckily for Artemis, it was only his friends who heard. Artemis began tearing up, "I'm a murderer, I'm a cold blooded murderer, I do it not because I want the world to be better, that may have been my original goal, but not anymore, I enjoy the feeling of blood on my fingers, I enjoy the screams that now come back to haunt me, I feel no better than Jack the fucking Ripper, I never got caught, just like Jackaboy, and I have this everlasting feeling that I want to do it again, it's addictive, and strangely fun, I need help, but not from a doctor or a psychiatrist, I need my friends, but now it seems, I can't even hold on to those," Artemis looked up, a look in his eye that scared even Wolf, "But, I will do it again, I can't prevent it, but this time it will be on the streets, my victim, Johnny Black, he's hunting you," Artemis turned to look Kirito in the eye, "He's hunting you, he's the other Deathgun, he's going to find you, and he will kill you, but not if I kill him first," Artemis had now officially scared the crap out of all his friends, but rather than back away, Kirito placed a hand on his shoulder, and smiled, and that made Artemis cry, he was done, he needed a break, and that was the last they saw of him for the next 3 days.

 **3 Days Later**

Suguha walked over to Caleb's house, no one had heard or seen him in three days, and she was worried. She approached his house, and knocked on the door, but nobody answered, so she twisted the door handle, it was unlocked, she walked in and went into shock at the state of the house, it looked to have been ransacked, and there was a strange odor coming from Caleb's room, it didn't smell pleasant, and she was worried of what she would find in there, so she knocked on the door, and told him it was Suguha, and she opened the door, to see a plate lying on the table beside his bed, a sea of liquor bottles, and a very dead looking Caleb, which scared her, until he turned his head, and notice who was there.

"Sugu!" He cried, as he stood on wobbly legs, she noticed that he was still holding a bottle of vodka, and she then saw that he had a pipe in his other hand, which alerted her, to look around his room with closer inspection, she noticed that his closet was open, and what she saw in it told her to call all of his friends, it was a noose.

"Um… hey, I just gotta make a few calls, just hold on a minute babe," she said, and she left the room. She called all of Caleb's friends including her brother, and they were all there in just under an hour.

When they arrived, she told them what she saw, and then walked back to his room, and grabbed him and brought him to the living room where all his friends were waiting.

"Aw… shit, this better not be an intervention, man I hate those things," He said, he had seemed to have sobered up a bit, well, enough so that he could talk rationally.

"This isn't an intervention, we're all just worried about you, what were you doing these past three days, and why didn't we hear from you," Suguha said soothingly.

"Well, the first day, I went out bought a shit ton of weed, then I went to the liquor store, bought out half the store, and then I went home and made pot brownies, Wolf knows, he had one and just left, just fucking left, I mean, I kinda wanted to talk but hey, I had like 39 pot brownies left, so that was my last 3 days, I spent 2 days eating pot brownies, nothing else, and I had nothing to drink other than alcohol and water, mostly alcohol, but still, that's the only sustenance I've have in two days, I mean, I tried to play Skyrim, I mean I gave it an honest effort, but I just couldn't do it, fucking rip, right?" Caleb was swaying in his seat.

"Holy fuck, take it easy with the liquor man, that shit could kill you," Alex said, "I know, I have experience, I used to be an avid drinker, then I nearly died from alcohol poisoning, that didn't stop me however, I'm just saying be careful."

"Ah, shoulda thought about that," Caleb laughed and nearly fell out of his seat, Suguha only just catching him.

"And that's all you've been drinking?" Sugu asked.

"Pretty much, I had too much, needed to get rid of it, also, I needed time away from ALO, it was messing with my head y'know," Caleb said, looking glum.

"Mood change went from laughing to just complete depression in a split second, I would say that was a new record, but you shoulda seen him with Suguo, it was actually hilarious," Alex said, laughing.

"Well, you already know why I feel like this, but that's besides the point, maybe I need to become heartless, naw, that's not right, maybe I need to just forget about them, but I can't, it's not a painful memory, it's just getting in the way of my everyday life, whatever," Caleb stood up, "I don't think anyone here has seen my sword collection, I've sobered up enough to walk normally, and be able to hold a weapon, I'm not an idiot," Caleb led them down the hall, and they saw a sliding door, which he opened, and it led to another hallway, and down it, at the end, was a room, he walked over, took his keys and opened it, everyone walked in and was amazed at his collection. There was Longswords, Greatswords, Cutlasses, and battle ready replica models, and every other type of sword they could think of, and Caleb smiled to see their surprise, the weapons were laid out neatly, very organized, in fact there was a space designed for every different type of sword, there was no windows in the room, but that was to be expected, he couldn't let anyone just come in and steal his prized possessions.

"Ah, I see you like it," Caleb said, smiling.

"Like it, I love it!" Alex and Owen said at the same time.

"The cool thing about it is, I know how to use every one of the swords, to maximum proficiency, I might add, I mastered all the sword fighting styles required to fight with every sword here, and another thing, I keep a katana in my car at all times, because I tend to witness a lot of muggings, it's strange, but as soon as I step out of the car with my katana, they bolt, leaving their loot behind, it's kinda funny really," Caleb smirked, "And I was attacked once, let's just say, he's not gonna hurt me anymore, and no, that doesn't mean I killed him, it means I cut him, and he didn't like the feel of my katana cutting into him."

"You, my friend, are sadistic," Alex said, looking around the room, he then saw a khopesh, one that looked like his khopesh from SAO, "Um… why do you have a khopesh, you said you can't fight with them."

"I didn't know or care if I knew how to fight with them, it's not my style of weapon, however, I tried training with one I had owned, and I found that I mastered it, well the previous Caleb who inhabited this body did, but if you're curious about that particular one, I made a replica of your khopesh from SAO, and in fact, I made replica's of everyone's weapons from SAO, that one may be on display, but isn't the battle ready replica," Artemis showed them to a door on the side of his room, and when he opened it, they saw a glow of fire red and blood red coming from deep within the room.

"What's that glow, it looks like your swords, but why are they glowing," Owen asked, while Alex looked on in pure shock.

"Yeah, those are my swords, and I don't know how they're glowing, if I didn't know better, I'd say it was magic," Artemis said.

"It is," Alex said simply.

"Wait, what?" Caleb said, looking at Alex.

"When you died, I knew you were carried off by god, that's when Raven first spoke to me, Raven is a celestial being, he is the celestial spirit of death, Raven told me everything, I knew it all, I just didn't know whether or not to believe him till you showed up," Wolf said, "And also, Raven taught me how to use magic, shadow magic to be precise."

"I'm sorry, I can't believe that for a sec-" Matt, whom had been silent the whole time, keeled over in agony.

"Say it again bitch," Alex looked menacingly at him, after a second, he turned to the other's, "Raven told me, that magic was created from Caleb's soul, the reason you are such a sadist here, is because you're soul is fragmented, anyone who came in contact with your body now has magical capabilities, but at the same time, you may not have came into contact with your old body, but your magical capabilities are through the roof, in fact it's slightly unnerving, but that's primarily because you are God, or rather, the spawn of god, or what I like to call GodBorn, not Jesus, but a being much like the dragonborn from Skyrim, you weren't birthed by god, rather, given life by him, not from another being upon this earth, the reason anyone who comes into contact with your old body is given magical capabilities, is because that's where the fragments of your soul remains, but as it is buried now, no one will get the capabilities," Alex finished.

"So what you're saying is that, I'm technically God, and can use magic? How does that work?" Caleb asked.

"Your soul was blessed by God when he took you, and rebirthed you, thus from the moment you died, anybody who touched your body, was given magical gifts, which they can use for either good or evil, however, I might not have told you this, but technically I'm undead, I'm the dark lord, if you will, the master of darkness, so on and so forth, but unlike super powers however, magic is comprised of the elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Ice, Shadow and Light, of these elements, I specialized in Shadow, it's the most evil of the elements, but when used in the right hands, can be a lifesaver," Alex said, "However, I could practice others, but I chose Shadow, over any of the others, but someone with your gift, you could master all of them, but first, you need a teacher."

"Ok, then I choose you, because you seem to know a lot about it, but quick question, Owen and Matt both touched my corpse, or am I wrong?" Caleb asked.

"Yes, we had to, we were the ones to bury you, so does that mean we also have magic?" Owen asked.

"Yes, if you touched them, you do, but to be sure," Alex whistled, and through the wall, came Raven, "Hey Raven, you can tell if these two have magical capabilities right? If so, please tell us."

"Yes, they have strong magical gifts, they must have been holding on to the body for quite a while," Raven replied, projecting his voice for all to hear.

"Perfect, my first students," Alex said, "I don't like the way they teach in schools, so I'll be the nice teacher, that actually fucking helps," Alex laughed.

"Well, we should get to learning, shouldn't we?" Owen asked.

"Damn right we should, now outside, I'm not your Phys Ed teacher, so I won't be making you work out or anything, and I'm not your study teacher, so you don't have to study, I work by practice, and the more practice you have, the more skillful you will be."

Raven hopped onto Caleb's shoulder, and spoke only to him, even blocking out Alex, "As a God, you have a special power, though you will learn it in time, you will be able to give your peers magical capabilities when you want, but not just that, but give them an ability that allows them to shift into their virtual forms."

"Virtual forms?" Caleb looked at the bird confused, "This is cool and all, but why would we need to have this?"

"There is something coming, and we don't know when, but when the clouds open up, and reveal a wormhole, that's when you'll understand," the Raven said, hopping off his shoulder.

Caleb had grown to trust the bird, and because he knew it was a spirit, he believed every word it said, but still, he was very curious about what might yet happen.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: We do not own Sword Art Online**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark Wolf Knight3**

 **Oblivion is owned by** **Urolutze**

 **Roxas is by** **the 2 tailed fox**

 **March 29th 2026**

Caleb got an urgent text from Asuna, and she was called into the hospital and Caleb knew exactly what was happening, Yuuki was dying. Caleb drove Asuna to the hospital as quickly as he could, even surpassing the speed limit sometimes. The two went in and ran to Yuuki's hospital room, and once they opened, they saw , yet to have the cure Caleb was talking to him about, however Caleb had the cure himself.

"Doc, I've got the cure, and the formula so you can cure other patients." Caleb said, showing the needle off with the cure inside.

"It is complete, correct?" asked.

"Yes, at this current time, it's proved to be the full cure." Caleb said. "Get Asuna on the Amusphere over there, and we'll give her the shots she needs."

gestured Asuna to use the Amusphere and she logged on to ALO to find Yuuki there.

"All right, we will give her the shot and see how it goes." Caleb said, nodded and proceeded to inject the cure into Yuuki's system, and they sat down for any signs.

They waited for a moment, until something happened, Yuuki started breathing normally, and her heart rate stabilized. Caleb then gave some needles of that will help her immune system, and so injected them into her system, and Yuuki seemed just fine. Caleb then went to the side room with his Nervegear to break the news...

Artemis spawned beside everyone in ALO surrounding Yuuki, who was in Asuna's arm, for she was crying tears of happiness. Though Artemis started cheering and said, "It fucking worked!"

"W-what worked?" Asuna asked, turning to Artemis, who was smiling brightly.

"The cure, it worked and she's breathing normally and her heart rate's stabilized. She's gonna survive." Artemis said

For a moment, Yuuki didn't believe what she was hearing, until she was able to feel strength coursing its way through her veins and she knew it to be true. She started crying tears of pure joy as she laid there, she said, "Thank you, big brother."

Artemis entered a state of shock, though he shook it off and said, "Big brother?"

"If I'm leaving the hospital soon, then I need a place to stay, I thought, I could stay at your place, that's fine with you right, you always treated me like a younger sister, so I only tho-" Yuuki was interrupted by Artemis grabbing her and hugging her tightly.

"Of course, little sis," She began to tear up, and grabbed him tightly, crying tears of pure joy, making even Artemis begin to tear up.

He released her when she calmed down, and looked around at everyone gathered, they hesitated before cheering and 'aweing' at the beautiful scene before them.

Everyone flocked them, and they all came up one by one to thank Artemis, and to congratulate Yuuki, making them both smile brightly, and they sat beside each other while Yuuki rested on Asuna's lap, Leafa had sat down beside Artemis, and laid her head on his shoulder, "So, you have a little sister now, huh?"

"Looks like it, you know, I've always wanted a sibling, someone who could look up to me, but also be there for me when I need it, but sadly, not all siblings are like that, but I would kill for her happiness, that's why I did this for her, I always loved you, but I always felt like, 'hey, what would it be like to have a little sister' and you know what, I saw Yuuki as that one person, the one who needed someone she could open herself up to, and that's who I became, and she became like a younger sister to me, so I treated her like that, and she soon began to see me as such," Artemis wasn't looking at her, just into the distance.

"Well, looks like you got what you want, so want to go visit her?" Leafa asked.

"Heh, thing is, me and Asuna are there now, oh and Yuuki," he turned to the girl, "You will be stuck in the hospital for another 6 months, I'm sorry, but we need to keep you there to make sure the AIDS doesn't come back, surely you understand, right?"

"Yup, so long as soon I'll be able to live with you," Yuuki smiled at him, she was the happiest girl ever at that moment.

"Well, we will soon see you, why don't you log out? You might be able to sit up for the first time in three years, and we can see your real eyes," Artemis smiled at her, and she gasped, she was surprised that she could possibly do it so soon, but even if she couldn't, it didn't hurt to try.

"Ok!" She logged out, and Leafa looked at Artemis.

"AIDS, why didn't I know about this?" Leafa asked.

"Well, I didn't want to worry you, now I must get off, I want to see my little sister," He smiled, and Leafa, understanding, said goodbye, and told him to stop by later that night.

"Ok, I will," Artemis then logged off, and walked into the room Yuuki was being held in. "Hey doc, lift that heavy thing off her for a second, I want to see something."

The doctors complied, and were soon blown away, they watched as the girl opened her eyes for the first time since being put on the Medicuboid, and an even greater accomplishment, she sat up, just as Caleb predicted.

"Hey, how's it feel to be awake in the real world again, little one?" Caleb asked her.

When she spoke, it was very raspy, but that was to be expected, having not used it in years, "It's amazing, thank you, big brother," This shocked the doctors, but then she weakly grasped Caleb in a hug, "Thank you, thank you so very much," Her voice was now beginning to gather tone, and now can be recognised as Yuuki's voice, but only just, as in was still very raspy.

"Heh, it was nothing, you realize, that I was creating a cure, solely for you, but now that we can use it, we can save everyone else." Caleb said. "Now I'm sure you're gonna need some rest, but if you ever wanna talk to me, call me."

Caleb then placed a phone for Yuuki to use with Caleb's contact information so Yuuki can call him whenever she wants. Caleb waved goodbye and left the room and drove to his house.

 **May 23rd 2026**

Caleb had invited every one of his friends to his place to celebrate Yuuki's birthday, and soon everyone came. Asuna, of course, brought the cake, and Alex and Owen brought some drinks that way they could enjoy themselves.

As the big group of friends walked into the house, Asuna put the cake away and as she did, she asked, "So Yuuki would be gone if she hadn't had gotten the cure by now, right?"

"Precisely. She would have died in your arms in ALO after she gave you Mother's Rosario, but we gave her the cure just in time." Caleb said. "So, should we give Yuuki a call and say happy birthday?"

"Definitely." Asuna said.

"Alright everyone," Caleb said, turning to the others who were sitting down in the living room. "Firstly, we're gonna give Yuuki a call and say happy birthday, and then we throw ourselves the best fucking party since the huge one we had after Laughing Coffin was wiped out."

"Now that's something we can all agree on, though, if you and Sugu are gonna do your thing after, just be careful alright?" Kazuto said.

"No worries." Caleb said. He sat down by Sugu and Kazuto on the couch and gave Yuuki a video call, and she soon answered.

"Happy Birthday Yuuki." Caleb said.

Yuuki noticed all the others in the room and she said, "Hi everyone, having a party huh?" Yuuki's voice wasn't as raspy as before, thus everyone understood her over the phone.

"Yup, in fact this one's gonna be bigger the one we had back in SAO after Laughing Coffin was wiped out by my guild." Caleb said.

Yuuki smiled and said, "All right, well I gotta go. The doctors want to check on my immune system. Bye."

"Bye." Caleb said, before Yuuki hung up.

"Well, we got a couple consoles here, let's have a small tournament and see who wins." Owen suggested.

"All right, I think I got some games here." Caleb said, pulling out a case full of his old games. "Well lookie what we got here, an old copy of Black Ops 3, and Halo 5, a few other fps games, any party games though? I'm sure not everyone wants to play Cod, or Halo. Okay, hands up for Halo."

Everyone stared at Caleb, except for Matt who was the only one to put his hand up. "Okay, well does anyone wanna play Cod?" Pretty much everyone put their hands up, even Keiko and Fiana put their hands up too, and nobody expected them to put their hands up.

"Then Cod it is, let's get the disc in the console and you guys go ahead and play away." Caleb said, before he got up and started the game.

"You gonna play Caleb? Or are you gonna have to help Asuna with making the rest of dinner?" Owen asked.

"Yeah I should help her. Shouldn't have to make her do all the work, right?" Caleb said.

 **30 minutes later**

"I'm gonna explode if I eat anymore, that was delicious you guy's." Alex said.

"Hey Caleb, mind telling us anything about the future and what's gonna happen?" Owen asked.

"Well, we finished dealing with OS, then I'm gonna have to kill that asshole Johnny Black that wants to kill Kazuto, but after that, I'm not sure. When I died, it was 2017, and nothing was revealed for what happens after this Johnny Black prick tries to kill Kazuto, so I have no way of finding out what's gonna happen in the future." Caleb explained.

"Well looks like these next few years are gonna be dangerous, huh?" Kazuto asked.

"Yeah, but I can prevent everything bad that happens up until after Johnny Black, but everything after that it's gonna be tough." Caleb said.

"Just be careful, alright?" Sugu said.

"Of course, no worries. Johnny Black is the least of my concerns, considering I'm a sword master with god powers." Caleb said, smirking.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: We do not own Sword Art Online**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark Wolf Knight3**

 **Oblivion is owned by** **Urolutze**

 **SWC Headquarters**

Artemis was having a drink with Oblivion, Wolf, and Nero, until Roxas came in with some information they have been waiting for a long time for.

"I think we have a shot at finding Deathwish's headquarters." Roxas said.

"Really? Where do you think it is?" Artemis asked.

"Floor 8, they have a fort in the north east area on the floor. We should be going soon to check." Roxas said.

"Well I hope it's not just an outpost." Artemis said getting up. "Well I'm gonna get everyone ready. Deathwish can't be as big as Laughing Coffin was, considering we're only on floor 26 right now."

Roxas nodded, and he left to get his recruits ready, and so did Artemis, and he got all his friends to the Briefing room.

"Okay, so this headquarters raid shouldn't be too tough, but we should expect a challenge." Artemis said. "It's gonna work like this, we're gonna have teams of two to three to raid different areas of the fort, Oblivion, you will be teamed with Lisbeth and Fiana. Wolf, you will be teamed with Sinon, Nero, you'll be teamed with Roxas and Arthegus, Leafa will be teamed with me, and Klein will be teamed with Kirito and Asuna. The plan is simple, we kill them all, and send the leader to prison that way Deathwish won't be a problem for a long while."

"Sounds like a plan." Kirito said.

 **Floor 8**

The group stood in the distance from a fort, which was expected to be Deathwish's headquarters. They all stood and saw that there were archers around the fort, and swordsmen, however, if Sinon could take over a watchtower beside the fort, she could shoot everyone down . "All right, Sinon, there's a watchtower over there, I need you to take it, and Wolf will guard the watchtower. The rest of us, our only job is to deal with as much guy's as we can." Artemis explained.

"Oh my gosh, this is like a Laughing Coffin outpost raid, this should be easy." Oblivion said.

"Maybe so, but we still have to deal with any backups along the way, and the leader." Artemis said.

"Of course, but still, this shouldn't be too difficult. Laughing Coffin grew up until they were defeated by us, and floor 70 or something was unlocked." Oblivion said.

"Just be careful for any surprises." Artemis said.

It was then, the group charged the fort, and Sinon had taken over a watchtower, and the other teams were on the ground. Artemis and Leafa ran towards a group of 8 and Artemis swung Shadow towards one of them, and landed a cut on his shoulder. Artemis then spun 180O degrees and swung Hellfire towards another man and stabbed him through the neck. Leafa took down the guy Artemis previously hit behind him and Artemis blocked an attack coming in from his left, though Artemis also disarmed him quickly and stabbed the man through the back as he turned and tried to run into the fort. Leafa finished off the last one of the group and they then charged another group trying to overpower Oblivion's team and Artemis stabbed two of the DW members in the back with both his swords, Artemis then ran towards another one that was about to attack Oblivion from behind and he killed the man quickly and once Leafa finished off the rest, they left quickly to help Sinon shoot down the rest of the guy's.

The DW members outside were taken down after Sinon shit the last archer, who was desperately trying to retreat. "It's just like an outpost raid I'll tell you!" Oblivion said.

"Well, let's just get into the fort and see what we find inside." Artemis said. "If there are not too many guy's in there, you guy's are free to fight solo if you want."

Artemis opened the door and, there were barely any DW members inside. "Well, we aren't in SAO, so maybe a lot of them are offline today." Oblivion said.

"No, this is a trap, I can tell." Artemis said.

"Well what the fuck are we waiting for? Let's pull the alarm and fuck them up." Nero said.

"Why did you have to put it like that?" Oblivion asked, laughing.

The group walked slowly into the fort, upon entering, they saw a note in the middle on a pedestal. "A note? Well let's read it." Artemis said.

 _The weapon has been moved to headquarters, as we don't want anyone from a guild like SWC to get it._ The note said.

"Roxas!? This isn't headquarters! This is an outpost! And they got some kind of super weapon!? What kind of bullshit is this?" Artemis yelled, angrily.

"Roxas! You said that was the headquarters for sure!" Arthegus said.

"I was told it was the headquarters for sure! I was set up!" Roxas said.

Artemis sighed and sat down, until he saw something, a map. "Hold on a minute, I think I got the solution."

Artemis walked over to the map, and he saw the fort they were at, and he saw a red line from the fort leading to another fort, that was bigger than the one they were at. "I think I found it." Artemis said.

"Well if that's not the headquarters and instead an outpost, we have to take it down anyways." Roxas said.

"Hold on a minute. Remember how Lisbeth found the skill item which had my Blur of Aura skill on it?" Oblivion asked.

"Yes. Are you saying we should loot the place?" Artemis asked.

"Anything that proves useful to Deathwish here we need to take before backup comes." Oblivion said.

Artemis agreed and he gestured everyone to loot the place, and Artemis went too. Oblivion opened a chest in the distance and he said, "Ooh, what's this?"

Artemis walked over to Oblivion and said, "Yeah, what is it?"

"A skill item. It says here if I surpass a specific speed, I could run on water? But look at the speed I have to pass, 60 miles per hour? I can only go 40 with the Blur of Arua skill alone!" Oblivion said.

"Yuuki could go 60 if she had Blur of Aura. You'd have to match her Agility to do that." Artemis said.

"Eh, might as well take the item until I can use it." Oblivion said.

"All right the place is fucking empty now, I can't find shit." Wolf said.

"Then let's head out to that fort and take it out." Artemis said

The group walked to the fort and upon finding it, they knew it was most definitely the headquarters, or a big outpost, but nevertheless, if it was a Deathwish outpost or headquarters, they had to take it down. Artemis gestured the group to stop and get down, and they observed the activity of the fort. In the distance, Artemis saw the leader standing at the top, which Artemis finally concluded this was definitely the headquarters.

"The leader is there at the top, so this must be the headquarters." Artemis said.

"What are we waiting for? Let's fuck the place up and be done with this." Wolf said.

"Why did you put that sentence together like that!?" Oblivion asked.

* _I have a better idea*_ Raven said, who landed on Wolf's shoulder just then.

"What would that be?" Wolf asked. Suddenly, a glow emitted from Artemis, Wolf, Nero, and Oblivion's hands.

* _We may practice using elemental powers in here. This may only be the Virtual World, and that glow emitting from your hands is not the real power you may use outside the Virtual World.*_ Raven said.

"And, what elements are we using right now?" Artemis asked.

* _None, as of right now anyways. You can change the element by will, though you must learn what element you like in here, and you can use two different ones for each hand.*_ Raven said. Just then, Oblivion moved his hands and pointed the face of his palms down and a force of wind shot from both his hands and he was in the air.

"Holy shit!" Oblivion said, moving quickly from the ground. "Wow, can I do this IRL if I picked the air element?"

* _If that is what you want.*_ Raven said.

"Sweet." Oblivion said, slowly landing on the ground.

They heard a horn blare from the headquarters. "Aw shit, you guys wanna watch? This shouldn't take long." Artemis asked.

The group nodded, because they wanted to observe the power they were about to gain IRL. Artemis and the other three flew to the Fort. Artemis was using the Lightning element in both hands, Wolf was using the Shadow element for both hands, Nero was using the fire element for both hands, and though Oblivion used two different element, for he used the Earth element in one and the Air element in his other hand. The four landed in front and Artemis shot bolts of lightning at multiple guy's and Wolf was shooting beams of Shadow, sending them into oblivion, or less confusingly, the face of death. Oblivion was shooting blasts of Air at the guy's and was ripping the Fort apart slowly using the powers of the Earth element. Nero burned the place down using the fire element, and they soon met the leader who jumped off the top and landed in front of the four.

"Stop!" The leader yelled. The four stopped destroying the Fort, for now.

"Why don't we have an actual fight, huh? Seem fair?" The leader said, angrily.

"But this was completely fair, look, your whole Fort is burning down! You're the one who's winning!" Nero said, sarcastically.

"Look, we don't have time for that shit, look at the time dude, it's 11:00 IRL. Me and my buddies are just gonna do you a favour and finish burning the place down, deal?" Artemis said.

The leader grumbled, only until Wolf walked towards him with shackles, and he cuffed him and held him in place, Oblivion then got his corridor crystal ready.

"Send him away!" Artemis said.

Wolf then pushed the leader into the portal and they soon left to let the Fort rot. The four walked to the group who saw their capabilities and were amazed by what they did.

"I hope we don't get banned for this." Oblivion said, laughing.

"We won't, we never did anything to the system, so they can't ban us because they have no evidence we did." Artemis said.

"That was fucking awesome. Let's go celebrate." Nero said.

 **SCW Headquarters dining room**

"Ah, fuck me. Asuna that was good food, though that fuck me was mainly for Leafa." Artemis said, jokingly.

"Well here we go again with you two." Oblivion said, laughing.

Kirito looked at him confused, "I'm kidding, I need a bit of a break anyways, from doing anything." Artemis said.

Kirito laughed, and so did the rest of the group. "You know, the first time you guy's went and did 'the thing' it sounded like you guy's you breaking shit up there, me and Wolf couldn't stop laughing." Oblivion said.

"Oh shit really?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah, it was funny though, and then we heard weird noises coming from up there, and then the whole fucking room was filled with laughter." Oblivion said.

"Aw shit, sorry about that." Artemis said.

"Yeah no worries." Oblivion said.

"Well, I'm just interested for what's gonna happen after Johnny Black tries to hunt Kirito down, before I slap him over the head and say, No! Though, I'm really interested for what's gonna happen, because I wasn't alive to see it." Artemis said.

"I hope its nothing bad." Oblivion said…

 **Credits**

 **Yozila85 - Author**

 **Dark Wolf Knight3 - Co Author**

 **Urolutze - Secondary Writer**

 **Disclaimer/Original Character ownership**

 **Artemis is owned by** **Yozila85**

 **Wolf is owned by** **Dark Wolf Knight3**

 **Oblivion and Arthegus are owned by** **Urolutze**

 **Nero is owned by** **Deathstorm4000** **(Who is not on Fan Fiction)**

 **Roxas is owned by** **The 2 Tailed Fox**

 **We do not own Sword Art Online**


End file.
